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THE PORTO RICO OF TO-DAY 



THE PORTO RICO OF 
TO-DAY 

PEN PICTURES OF THE PEOPLE 
AND THE COUNTRY 



BY /' 

ALBERT GARDNER ROBINSON 



NEW YORK 

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 

1899 

'A 



25303 



Copyright, 1899, by 
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 



■"""D 



TROW DIRECTORY 

PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY 

NEW YORK 



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PREFATORY NOTE 

In the preparation of this book, it has not been the 
purpose of the writer to produce a guide-book, an 
economic treatise, or a hand-book of military science. 
Yet all these, and other topics, are treated with more 
or less fulness in its pages. The work is based upon 
a series of letters furnished to The Evening Post of 
New York, during the months of August, September, 
and October, 1898, which have been revised and am- 
plified for this purpose. As a correspondent for that 
paper, the writer accompanied one of the first de- 
tachments of the army of invasion to Porto Rico, and 
remained on the island until after the conclusion of 
the campaign by the raising of the American flag 
over the city of San Juan, on October 18th. The 
purpose of this book then is to present a picture of 
the people and of the country as the author saw 
them, and to throw light upon the commercial possi- 
bilities in our new possession that lie within the 
reach of American business men. 

A. G. R. 



CONTENTS 
I 

PREPARATIONS FOR THE CAMPAIGN 

Marching Orders — The Composition and Command of the Porto 
Rico Expedition— Uncertainty Regarding its Movement— Confu- 
sion of Orders — The Embarkation from Tampa, . . Page i 

II 

LIFE ON A TROOP-SHIP 

Some Faults in Troop Transportation— Unnecessary Exposure to 
Danger— Soldiers Killing Time— Grumbling at the Commissary 
— Food of Officers and Privates — A Midnight Excitement — 
Encounter with the Eagle on the Blockading Line— Arrival at 
Ponce, Page II 



EARLY DAYS ON THE ISLAND 

Porto Rico or Puerto Rico — The Carib Title— Boriquen— First 
Impressions of the Island — The Harbor of Ponce — Unloading 
Transports — Soldiers as Stevedores — Mutual Curiosity— La 
Playa — The City of Ponce— Appearance of the Common People 
— Pedlers — The Island Ponies— Shopping Experiences — Cour- 
tesy from a Citizen, Page 26 



VIU ' CONTENTS 

IV 

THE CITY OF PONCE 

Our Reception— Busy Days— Two Centres of Activity— Amusements 
— Police Department — Fire Department — The Market — Ponce 
Stores— A Lesson in Spanisli, Page ^7 

V 

INTO THE COFFEE DISTRICT 

The Town of Yauco — The Sunday Morning Market — Fruits and 
Vegetables— Jacky and the Natives— Guanica— Our First Land- 
ing Place — A Horse Trade— On the Road to Adjuntas — A 
Mountain Town— The Good Padre— The Kitchen-maid and her 
Cigar Page 62 

VI 

A NIGHT IN THE SADDLE 

Correspondents on the Firing-line— An Excited Chief of Police- 
Beyond the Outposts — A Search for Willing Prisoners — A Blind 
Trail— A Spaniard's Hospitality— Midnight Encounters— Friends 
or Foes— Unwilling Rough Riders— A Striking Picture— The 
Capture—" Too Near " Home, Page 78 

VII 

TYPICAL TOWNS AND VILLAGES 

" Shucks and Shacks "—Picturesque San German—" Hotel the Strug- 
gle " — A Restless Night— A Native Description of the Engagement 
at Hormigueros— Two Humble Heroes— A Notable Shrine — Beau- 
tiful Mayaguez — A Miniature Street-car Line — Public Buildings 
— The Casino, . Page gj 



CONTENTS IX 

VIII 

FROM PONCE TO SAN JUAN 

A Model Highway— A Bicycle Trip Worth Taking— Island Villages— 
The Baths of Coamo — Good Luck for our Army — A Moun- 
tain Drive— Passing the Outposts — Cayey and Guayama— Nat- 
ure's Bounty— System of Road Repairs— Porto Rican Road- 
houses, Page jo8 

IX 

HIGHWAYS 

An Important Factor in Island Development— Present Highway Sys- 
tem — A Hard Journey — The Bovimotor — The Boy and the 
Coachman — Fun for the Boy, and Entertainment for the Audi- 
ence—Porto Rican Drivers— The Need of Good Roads— Costly 
Transportation— A Heavy Charge on Industries, . . Page 122 

X 

RAILROADS AND TELEGRAPHS 

The Railways of To-day— The Ponce and Yauco Division— The Hu- 
miliation of a Traveller— The Solitary Occupant of the Apartment 
of the First Class— Familiar Sights in a Foreign Land— The Re- 
quirements of the Island — Present System of Transportation — 
Probable Benefits of Railway Extension— The United States in 
the Telegraph Business— Cable Lines, Page ijj 

XI 

INDUSTRIAL POSSIBILITIES 

Our New Farm— Mining Possibilities and Timber Lands— The Out- 
look for Sugar — The Coffee Industry — Encouragement in To- 
bacco-growing— Obstacles to Export Fruit Trade— Cattle-raising 
—An American Bermuda— Victims of Mariana, . . . Page ijo 



X CONTENTS 

XII 

COMMERCE ON THE ISLAND 

Ephemeral Trade — Problems for the Merchants — Arrival of the 
Commercial Army— Disappointed Speculators and Promoters — 
Local Productions — The Volume of Imports — The Export Trade 
— Porto Rican Business Methods— Influence of Tariff— Outlook 
for Americans, Page i6j 

XIII 

OLLA PODRIDA 

The Best Way to Travel on the Island— Sleeping Accommodations — 
Conservative Farmers— Food Staples of the Peasantry— The 
Temperature and Its Results — The Educational Question — Schools 
and School-houses of San Juan— Points of Interest— Pretty Girls 
— Cost of City Government — The " Color " Question — Porto 
Rican Homes, ^ Page i8o 

XIV 

THE CAMPAIGN ON THE ISLAND 

Military Skill vs. the " Dispensations of Providence "—The Plan 
of the Porto Rico Campaign — A Unique Expedition — General 
Schwan's Sweep to the West— Difference in American and Span- 
ish Methods in Warfare — Discomforts of a Tropical Campaign — 
An Unwritten Story— Our Insignificant Casualties, . Page igy 

XV 

UNDER THE OLD REGIME 

Exaggerated Idea of Spanish Oppression— Heavily Taxed, but Virtually 
Free from Debt — A Citizen's Complaints — A Nineteenth Century 
Inquisition — Taxes for Special Purposes — Annexation Preferred 
to Autonomy — The Hope of the People, . , . . Page 206 



CONTENTS XI 

XVI 

ADIOS! ESPANA 

Brief but Impressive Ceremony — The De Profundis of Spanish 
Rule — Amicable Relations — Admiral Sampson's System of Ven- 
tilation for Public Buildings — The Fortifications of San Juan— 
The Soldiers of the Boy King— Their Repatriation— The Law of 
Karma, Page sig 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

Facing 
page 

Palace of the Governor-General, San Juan, now the American 

Official Head-Quarters Frontispiece "^ 

United States Transports off Port Ponce 28 '" 

A Typical Street in Port Ponce 32 '-^ 

A Street Scene in Port Ponce 36 

Main Road, Ponce to Port Ponce 40 

A Street in Ponce 52 

View of Ponce from the Hospital 56 

Market-Place at Ponce 64 

Cathedral and Plaza at Arecibo 80 

Dominican Monastery, in San German, Built about 1511 . . 96 

Plaza and City Hall in San German 100 

Cathedral and Plaza at Ponce 110 

The Military Road near Ponce 116 '^ 

The Military Road from Ponce to San Juan . . . .120 

Where the Natives Live 132 - 

The Home of a Planter 154 '^ 

Home of the Peons 1 72 ^ 

Looking Westward from Fort San Cristobal— Morro in the 

Distance 190"^ 

Looking Eastward from Morro— San Cristobal in the Distance .190 



XIV LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

Facing 
page 

Ruins of Passenger- Cars Burned by the Spaniards at Ponce . 198 
Commanding Officers of the Twenty-fifth Alphonso Guard, in 

front of the Spanish Barracks, Arecibo .... 204^ 
Seventh United States Artillery, Light Battery M, Encamped near 

Ponce 206 ' 

Fort San Cristobal, San Juan 222 

Plaza in San Juan, with the City Hall on the Left . » . 226 
St. John's Church, San Juan, showing the Effects of the Bom- 
bardment 230-'' 



MAPS 

General Map of Porto Rico . . . .At end of volume 
Telegraph Lines and Stations in Porto Rico . " " " 
Porto Rico and its Coast Line ....'• " " 



THE PORTO RICO OF TO-DAY 



I 

PREPARATIONS FOR THE CAMPAIGN 

Marching: Orders — The Composition and Command of the Porto 
Rico Expedition — Uncertainty Regarding its Movement — 
Confusion of Orders — The Embarkation from Tampa. 

New York, June 3, 1898. 
A. G. BobmsoUj 

Chattanooga^ Tenn, 

Leave for Jacksonville immediately to join Lees 

expedition to Porto Rico. Beport by wire on arrival 

there. 

The Evening Post. 

Foe the six weeks preceding the receipt of this 
telegram I had been engaged in studying and re- 
porting the conditions of the life of our troops at 
Camp Thomas. It had been arranged that I should 
accompany the army to Porto Eico whenever it 
should start. Within three hours of the receipt of 
this message I was on my way to Jacksonville, Fla., 
then the head-quarters of the Seventh Army Corps, 
General Fitzhugh Lee commanding. I obeyed the 
first four words of my instructions, but I was more 



2 THE PORTO EICO OF TO-DAY 

tlian doubtful of any opportunity to obey the follow- 
ing seven. But at that time "Washington and New- 
York had accepted the rumor that Lee and the 
Seventh Corps were to invade and occupy the island 
of Porto Kico. The move on Porto Eico had been 
discussed and planned, and there was some ground for 
expectation of its immediate development. That the 
move would be made under the command of General 
Lee was not the logic of the situation, although 
many of our people and many of our leading journals 
fully believed that Lee was slated for that expedi- 
tion. 

Lee's proper and logical destination was Havana, 
to which point he was ordered later on, and not San 
Juan, where rumor at this time had assigned him. 
He knew Havana, had been there during the days 
of special stress, had left there under peculiar cir- 
cumstances, and, on leaving, had told the Havanese — 
though his statement was rather personal than offi- 
cial — that he would come back to them with an army 
behind him. It therefore seemed wholly fitting that 
if Havana were to be made a point of attack during 
the impending war. General Lee's words on leaving 
that city should be made good by the government 
which sent him there. There were other reasons 
also why the Seventh Corps was not likely to form 
the Porto Eico expedition. It was but partially 



PREPAKATIONS FOR THE CAMPAIGIS' 3 

organized, was deficient in drill, and inadequately 
equipped. Nor was Jacksonville at all a suitable 
place for the embarkation of an expedition. Its 
liarbor was difficult of access, and of wholly insuffici- 
ent depth to accommodate any, save a few of the 
lighter draft transports. 

The following six weeks were spent in writing 
camp stories from Jacksonville, Tampa, Key "West, 
and Miami, and in running down the many orders 
and rumors of orders for the forwarding of the expe- 
dition to Porto Rico. The days of June and the ear- 
lier days of July were probably more prolific than 
any others of the entire campaign in the production 
of rumors of projected advances of our army, and in 
the actual issue of orders for movement which were 
immediately followed by countermanding orders. It 
is somewhat doubtful if the War Department really 
knew what it wanted to do, or what it intended to 
do. The vociferous expressions and demands of a 
certain phase of journalism, and the outcry raised 
by congressmen and others whose enthusiasm ran 
beyond the boundaries of sound judgment, were far 
from being in harmony with the plans and wishes of 
the administration. Men of enthusiastic and san- 
guine temperament loudly asserted the ability of 
the United States to put hundreds of thousands of 
fighting men into the field, armed and equipped and 



4 THE PORTO EICO OF TO-DAY 

ready for service, witliin a period which they meas- 
ured by days. Men of sounder judgment, wider 
experience, and fuller knowledge, were well aware of 
the folly of such a proposition. Insistent demand 
for immediate movement sought to override impossi- 
bilities, and dire confusion was the inevitable result. 
The situation, so far as the press and the public 
were concerned, was complicated by the circulation 
of "inside information," which may have been issued 
only as a " blind " to conceal genuine plans from 
interested Spanish observers, to whom a knowledge 
of our intentions would have been of incalculable 
service. An army of trained journalists and news- 
seekers was on the alert for possible clews that 
would guide them and their papers in the formation 
of plans for obtaining those accounts which must be 
furnished to their readers, and without which the 
journal would lose prestige as a source of the earliest 
and most accurate information. The Porto Eico ex- 
pedition was a matter of less real moment, and was 
a much smaller affair, than the invasion of Cuba. Yet 
its despatch seemed to present even a greater tan- 
gle than did the larger enterprise. The unwisdom 
of any move on Havana during the early summer 
months became more and more apparent. The grad- 
ual development of the situation paved the way to 
the Santiago expedition. But there was nothing 



PEEPABATIONS FOR THE CAMPAIGN 5 

wliich made the immediate occupation of Porto Eico 
clearly imperative. The presence of the Cervera 
squadron in West Indian waters also arose as a 
restraining element. 

The command, constitution, and the point of de- 
parture of the army for Porto Eico, remained open 
questions, and the newsboys who sold the papers 
were almost as accurately informed regarding the 
position as were the editors who printed them. 
Waiting correspondents telegraphed to their home 
offices, and the home offices replied to the waiting 
correspondents. The Porto Eico expedition was to 
leave Tampa on a certain day, and was to consist 
of the Fourth Corps, under General Coppinger. It 
was to start either from Miami or from Fernaudina, 
and consist of the Seventh Corps, under General 
Coppinger. Again the rumor came that Lee was to 
start from Jacksonville with his command. Every 
major-general of the army who could not be other- 
wise accounted for, was assigned, by some more or 
less widely current report, to the command of the 
Porto Eican expedition. These various expeditions 
were formed, by these reports, of any and all troops 
having no other special destination. They were ap- 
pointed to sail, by the same reports, upon various 
dates, and from a long list of Atlantic and Gulf ports. 
This is hardly an exaggeration, and it was from all 



6 THE PORTO EICO OF TO-DAY 

this intricate maze of uncertain reports and rumors 
that correspondents and their chiefs were to extract 
the kernel of truth which would guide them in the 
way in which they should go. 

At last, soon after the middle of July, everything 
appeared to focus around General Brooke and the 
First Army Corps. On the 19th, the following de- 
spatch reached me at Jacksonville : " Latest advices 
are General Brooke reaches Chickamauga to-morrow 
and then will decide what regiments leave with him 
for Porto Eico, with indications movement not begin 
before last this month. Fourth Corps said to be 
already embarked at Tampa." 

The first part of this despatch was approximately 
accurate. The last part showed the effect of press 
censorship, which was very close at Tampa. Not a 
few of even the leading newspapers announced the 
departure of that Tampa expedition a number of 
days before the vessels left the wharves. On the 
following day, the 20th, a despatch came from the 
office, which read as follows : 

" Best Washington advice is that you go to New- 
port News to embark." 

Charleston had also come into prominence as the 
point from which the troops were to sail, and Gen- 
eral Ernst's brigade of the First Corps was on its 
way to that port, with possibilities of being ordered 



PREPARATIONS FOR THE CAMPAIGN 7 

to some other before reaching it. The Tampa de- 
tachment was in process of assembly. Even at so 
nearby a point as Jacksonville we were quite unable 
to learn either its composition or its probable day of 
sailing. We were told that it had gone, that it was 
to go, and that its orders had been countermanded, 
and that it would not go at all. General Miles had 
sailed, some days before, for Santiago, with more 
troops than were needed there, and was to proceed 
to Porto Eico with the surplus. 

These four detachments, from Newport News, 
Charleston, Tampa, and Santiago, gradually assumed 
a definite shape, until there was no question that a 
force would move from each point. It became clearly 
evident that the Porto Rican invasion was to be the 
work, not of an army, but of an aggregation. In a 
force whose numerical strength was somewhat less 
than the half of an army corps, four different corps 
were represented. Brigades and regiments were de- 
tached from the commands with which they had been 
connected, and were assigned to this heterogeneous 
expedition in a wa}^ which, a little later, gave rise to 
serious conditions among the troops, by reason of 
the lack and derangement of the staff service which 
attends and provides for the line in the properly sys- 
tematized organization. This undoubtedly was the 
main cause of the many serious difficulties encoun- 



8 THE PORTO RICO OF TO-DAY 

tered by our soldiers on the island of Porto Eico. 
Our military system provides for military organiza- 
tions, with the corps, the division, the brigade, 
the regiment, and the company, as the descending 
sequence in the line of organization and supply, but 
it makes no adequate provision for miltiary conglom- 
erations. 

It became a problem of no easy solution to deter- 
mine which of the three available detachments — 
Santiago being, of course, out of reach — presented 
the best combination of chances for interesting news- 
matter. Presumably, all would rendezvous at some 
previously determined point. But there was also the 
possibility that they would not. The result sup- 
ported the possibility. The determination being left, 
in a measure, to my own judgment, I chose the 
Tampa detachment because it promised an early 
move which would put it in the fore-front in the 
days of the expected activity, and also because it 
was composed entirely of soldiers of our regular 
army, for which I confess to holding a very marked 
predilection. I therefore moved at once on Tampa. 

Upon my arrival I found everything and every- 
body in a state of disorder and turmoil. The place 
was a bee-hive, an ant-hill, a toy- shop on Christmas- 
eve — anything that represents ceaseless activity and 
some apparent and some evident confusion. The ex- 



PREPARATIONS FOR THE CAMPAIGN 9 

pedition was on the eve of its departure, and every- 
body connected with it was saddled with a load 
which should have been distributed upon many 
shoulders. Eight transports were being loaded, two 
for Santiago and six for Porto Kico. "Washington 
was telegraphing rush orders and trying to learn 
why a few men could not do the work which should 
have been apportioned among a hundred. The long 
wharf was crowded with stevedores, railroad men, 
officers, troopers, and civilians. Cars, loaded with 
supplies, were waiting the transference of their con- 
tents to the ships alongside. Artillery horses, cav- 
alry horses, pack mules, ambulances and army wag- 
ons, stood in long lines, waiting to be rushed on 
board and stored as best they might be at the last 
moment. 

It took several hours of tedious waiting before I 
could secure enough of the time of the overworked 
depot quartermaster to enable me to obtain the order 
which assigned me to a state-room on board the trans- 
port D. H. Miller. She was to carry my friends of 
Light Battery C of the Seventh United States Artil- 
lery. I desired to accompany them for personal rea- 
sons, and also for the hope that in those engagements 
which it was then supposed would form a part of the 
campaign, the artillery would be given its full measure 
of prominence. It was my wish to make a somewhat 



10 THE PORTO RICO OF TO-DAY 

careful study of that rather neglected but highly im- 
portant arm of our military service — the light field 
battery. As Battery was equipped with the new 
pattern of gun using the smokeless powder, there ap- 
peared to be strong probability of its seeing active 
service if anybody did. We tried to get along with- 
out an adequate force of artillery at the battles be- 
fore Santiago, and the plan is hardly to be credited 
with any marked degree of success. 

Noon, on Saturday July 23d, saw four of the trans- 
ports for Porto Eico on their way dov/n the Bay of 
Tampa, with the other two to follow as soon as the 
inevitable *4ast things" could be done. General 
Miles had sailed from Santiago. General Ernst was 
on his way from Charleston, and General Brooke was 
getting ready with the detachment from Newport 
News. After months of waiting and v/eeks of make- 
believe preparation, the Porto Eican expedition had 
become a fact. 



II 

LIFE ON A TROOP-SHIP 

Some Faults in Troop Transportation— Unnecessary Exposure to 
Danger— Soldiers Killing: Time— Grumbling at the Commissary 
—Food of Officers and Privates— A Midnight Excitement — 
Encounter with the Eagle on the Blockading Line— Arrival at 
Ponce. 

" To the front." Few words have a wider interest 

or a deeper meaning when the clarion of war has 

sounded in the ears of a nation. To the soldier who 

is to go, they mean the active service for which he 

has enlisted, the realization of his desires. They 

mean disappointment to those who stay behind in 

the camps. They mean care and pain and anxiety 

to hundreds of thousands of loving hearts at home. 

They are a text for a sermon and a title for a story. 

After months of routine work in camp, the bugle call 

of the "general," which is the signal for striking 

tents and loading baggage, comes as a welcome 

sound of sweet music to the soldier, if it follows 

orders which send the command *' to the front." It 

is seldom that more than the briefest time is allowed 

11 



12 THE PORTO RICO OF TO-DAY 

for preparation. Farewell letters must be the work 
of such chance minutes as may be found free from 
other duties, and it often happens that such minutes 
do not come at all, and the soldier boy goes to the 
front with no " good-by " to the friends at home. 
Sometimes this is his fault, but more often it is an 
unfortunate result of his necessary duties. 

Whether or no it be that all wars, and all cam- 
paigns and military expeditions present the same 
opportunities for criticism as does the Spanish- 
American entanglement of 1898, it is an unfortunate 
fact that few of the processes of the Porto Eico 
campaign are not open to severe criticism. It is 
difficult to deal with any of its phases without some 
censure for things done, and for others left undone. 
To omit this censure and the criticism, though 
neither is a pleasant feature to either the writer or 
the reader, would entail the exclusion from any story 
of the campaign of the summer of 1898 of very much 
that was among its prominent incidents and situa- 
tions. The movement " to the front " of the Tampa 
detachment of the army for the invasion of Porto 
Bico presents its own set of incidents and condi- 
tions, which were far from being what they should 
have been. 

The command was sent to sea, with no convoy, for 
a voyage of sixteen to eighteen hundred miles. 



LIFE OIT A TKOOP-SHIP 13 

Probably, under tlie circumstances, a convoy would 
have been superfluous. The point is perhaps a 
minor one ; but it was a military expedition, and the 
question of military form might be raised. But a 
more serious question was involved. An order, very 
vague and general, where it should have been definite 
and explicit, was issued, to the effect that the differ- 
ent vessels of the expedition should keep as near 
together as was practicable. At Cape Antonio a 
steamer, which we assumed to be the Arkadia, one 
of our consorts, showed faintly upon the horizon line 
some twenty miles to the southwest. The Whitney 
and the Florida were barely visible astern, while the 
Cherokee and the Mohawk, which were to start some 
hours behind us and overtake us through a superior 
speed, had not even shown their smoke. We lost 
them all, or they lost us, later on, and for several 
days we saw no one of them. We were thus, practi- 
cally, an independent craft, running without refer- 
ence to any others. 

While we were doubtless whoUy safe from any 
interference from Spanish or any other foreign ves- 
sels, we were not equally safe from the dangers of 
the sea, against which more careful and more ample 
provisions might and should have been made. We 
carried three hundred and thirty-five men, and one 
hundred and eighty horses. We carried four hun- 



14 THE PORTO RICO OF TO-DAY 

dred and fifty rounds of amnmnition for each of the 
six 3.2-inch field gnns, besides the ammunition for a 
company of infantry. We had four boats and one 
life-raft. Not one of the boats would have lived in a 
heavy seaway, and one or two of them would hard- 
ly have floated on a mill-pond. Had any of the pos- 
sibilities of an ocean voyage occurred, had fire broken 
out, or had we run into one of the hurricanes incident 
to that region, the soldiers of the United States 
would have been exposed to dangers and to risks 
which might have been greatly modified by the issu- 
ance of proper orders, which would have kept the 
ships within hailing distance of each other, or by the 
provision of an adequate equipment of boats and rafts. 
As it was on the Miller, so it doubtless was on 
the other vessels. The men would smoke, and the 
utmost vigilance was required to keep them from 
smoking in the vicinity of the baled hay provided 
for the horses. It is true that our force on the 
Miller consisted of regulars, who are usually amena- 
ble to discipline. But it included a very large per- 
centage of raw recruits, who had not learned that 
obedience is one of the principal requirements of a 
soldier's life. It was, therefore, the mercy of Provi- 
dence, and not the wisdom or foresight of man, 
which kept that expedition from serious disaster. 
But all's well that ends well. 



LIFE 0]Sr A TROOP- SHIP 15 

We were spared those dangers which were a con- 
stant possibility, and we sailed for days through the 
bluest of blue water, under the sunniest of sunny 
skies. The novelty of the voyage was exhausted 
during the first day out. Flying fishes lost their 
interest, and a school of porpoises ceased to be an 
excitement. The majority took to sleeping the hours 
away, though a few of the more energetic took to 
" nosey poker " and other games of cards. " Nosey 
poker " is a game which does not depend upon any 
recent visit of the army paymaster. The game is 
played by any number, and the loser, instead of giv- 
ing up a portion of his thirteen dollars a month, is 
subjected to punishment for holding the weakest 
hand, by a fillip on the nose with the full pack of 
cards held, in turn, between the thumb and fingers 
of each of his opponents. 

But sleeping was the popular occupation. The 
number of hours out of the twenty-four which some 
men can spend in sleep, day in and day out, is beyond 
the comprehension of any man who cannot catch a 
cat-nap during the day without paying for it by some 
hours of wakefulness during the following night. I 
have no reason to think that the men on board the 
D. H. Miller were endowed with any fuller measure 
of sleeping power than were the men on the other 
ships. What they did, I presume all to have done. 



16 THE POETO EICO OF TO-DAY 

Scores of them slept all day, and then slept all night. 
They lay about the decks in all manner of conceiv- 
able and inconceivable attitudes and costumes. 
" Tattoo " and " taps " did not concern them. Few 
heard either, for long before the hour of their sound- 
ing, the decks, from bow to stern, were covered with 
the forms of sleeping men. There were bunks for 
them below, but the hard deck was chosen for its 
greater coolness. 

Many complaints have been published of the suf- 
ferings of the soldiers on these transports. That 
they were subjected to various unavoidable physical 
discomforts is not to be denied. But the complaints 
would have come in any case, for the far greater 
portion of them came from the constitutional growl- 
ers. On many of the ships, the horses were the real 
sufferers. Therein lay an unfortunate mistake of our 
transportation department. There is no doubt that 
men can and will take care of themselves to very great 
extent. Horses cannot do this, and therefore should 
receive far more attention than was shown them 
on many of these vessels. This should be done, not 
only on the ground of mercy to dumb animals, but, 
as well, because these animals are indispensable in 
army service. The men cannot live in the field with- 
out the provisions which must be drawn to them by 
horses or mules ; they cannot fight without the ammu- 



LIFE ON- A TROOP-SHIP 17 

nition which must reach them by means of army 
wagons. Efficient service in battle depends almost 
entirely upon our four-footed servants, and they 
should be kept in the most of comfort and best of 
condition. This cannot be if they are stifled for ten 
days or two weeks on an ocean voyage. 

From some of the pitiful tales which have been given 
space in some of our newspapers, concerning soldier- 
life on shipboard, one would be wholly justified in a 
conclusion that all hands spent the greater portion of 
their time enduring the agonies of slow starvation, 
while they listened to the popping of champagne 
corks, and the rattle of dishes laden with delicacies 
served for the delectation of the officers in the 
cabin. Naturally the officers did fare better than the 
men. But, in all complaints of this character, it is 
necessary to keep one fact clearly in mind, whether 
the complaint refer to conditions on ship-board or in 
camp. It is that the government feeds the private 
and the non-commissioned officer, while the commis- 
sioned officer has to feed himself. This he is free to 
do in any way which suits his taste and his pocket- 
book. If he wants champagne, he can have it by 
paying for it. If he wants strawberries in January, 
he can have them — by paying for them. If condi- 
tions be such that no market is available, the only 
way by which the officer may rightly and lawfully 



18 THE PORTO RICO OF TO-DAY 

obtain the food which he needs, is by the purchase 
of rations from his command, or from some portion 
of it. For what he thus gets, he must pay a certain 
specified sum per day. The amount thus paid is 
applied to what is known as the " company fund," 
and may be expended, like the profits arising from 
the " canteen," for the benefit of the company mess. 

This " company fund " is one of the channels 
through which the mess of the private in the regular 
army has an advantage over the mess of the volun- 
teers. The government supply of three and a quar- 
ter pounds of food per day per man is above the 
average of individual consumption. Out of the daily 
supply for a company, the properly qualified cook 
easily effects a saving, and the surplus may be ex- 
changed or sold for the benefit of the "company- 
fund." Through his wider experience, the regular 
has a better knowledge of the economy of resources, 
and thus holds an advantage over the less experi- 
enced volunteer. But the officers' mess is entirely 
their own affair, and is no more a matter for the 
comment or criticism of the privates than is the 
table of a railroad president a matter which concerns 
his employees. I have heard volunteer officers 
boast proudly that they " stayed with the boys," ate 
with them, and shared the details of their lives. I 
have never known a case of this kind in which the 



LIFE 01^ A TROOP-SHIP 19 

officer, through an undue familiarity with his men, 
did not materially and seriously weaken his influ- 
ence over them. On board the transports, arrange- 
ments were made by which meals were served in the 
saloon to cabin passengers, officers, newspaper cor- 
respondents, or any other civilians who obtained 
government transportation. The usual price was 
fifty cents for each meal. On board the Miller this 
was collected daily. Whether the steward doubted 
our honesty or our financial resources, I am unable 
to say. 

The Miller carried her full quota of the grumblers. 
One presented himself one day to complain to his 
commanding officer that the men were not receiving 
their due quantity of coffee. A few questions drew 
out the fact, already well known to the officer, that 
each man received a pint of coffee with each meal. 
He was sent away to digest his newly acquired in- 
formation that the government supplied coffee for a 
beverage and not for bathing purposes. It is heavy 
odds that the next letter which that boy wrote to his 
home people made them long to send him a few 
pounds of Eio. Another complained that the coffee 
was ample in quantity, but was lamentably deficient 
in strength. There was nothing in either his ap- 
pearance or his conversation to indicate that he was 
one who was accustomed to a pint of cafe noir three 



20 THE PORTO EICO OF TO-DAY 

times a day, previous to liis enlistment. Some com- 
plained that canned beans were served with undue 
frequency. Others wanted more beans. Some had 
too much canned beef and too little canned salmon. 
Others wanted less salmon and more beef. Some 
wanted a more frequent issue of canned tomatoes. 
Others did not want them at all. 

The complainants were chiefly from the newly 
enlisted men, of which the commands on board con- 
tained an unusually large proportion. It was only 
possible to endeavor to show these men that it was 
out of the question for the government to try to run 
its commissary department on the European plan. 
Then they went away and wrote those j^itiful tales of 
suffering, privation, and cruelty, which, in public 
press and in private letters, have added a wholly un- 
warranted fuel to the flame of public indignation 
against the shortcomings of the staff departments of 
the United States army. Men who, at home, would 
not think of going to a physician with their petty 
ailments, besieged the surgeon with doleful tales of 
aches and pains of which they showed no symp- 
toms ; and, because he measured their ailments at 
their true value, called him hard names behind his 
back and "wrote to the papers" about his neglect 
and indifference. A measure of excuse for some 
lies in the fact that it is very dijfficult to convince a 



LIFE ON A TROOP-SHIP 21 

man who is taking his first sea-voyage, that a mild 
touch of mal de mer, for which there is no remedy 
except getting over it, is not the early stages of some 
horrible and deadly disease. 

But in spite of complaints and the fancied ailments 
of lives of utter idleness, nobody starved to death, 
and nobody died of sea-sickness. There was little to 
break the monotony. Occasional views of a distant 
coast became events. A close watch was kept for 
the vessels of our blockading fleet. An encounter 
with one of them led to an interesting conversation 
off the Isle of Pines, on the southern coast of Cuba, 
on the night of July 25th. The hour was midnight. 
The stars shone clearly overhead. Away to the 
northward vivid and frequent flashes of lightning 
outlined the heavy cloud masses which hung along 
the horizon. All on board the Decatur H. Miller 
were asleep, save those who were on duty. The 
decks were thickly strewn with the forms of sleeping 
soldiers, who found the decks a more comfortable 
dormitory than the hot and oppressive quarters pro- 
vided for them below. The Miller was pounding 
her way through the surges of the Caribbean Sea at 
her usual pace of six knots an hour. 

The conversation started with some sea-talk in the 
shape of a signal-light which gleamed from the dark- 
ness on the port quarter. An unknown something 



22 THE POETO RICO OF TO-DAY 

was out there telling tlie Miller to stop her engines. 
But the Miller kept on. The light shot forward, and 
from the dim, low-lying form on the surface of the 
water there came a flash and a report. That was 
another and a more emphatic way of saying " Stop ! " 
It was treated as the light had been. Then the dark 
form showed three signal lights, one above the other, 
and ran up to within hailing distance, and the sum- 
mons to "heave to" came through a megaphone. 
This produced the desired effect. The megaphone 
voice again came across the water, and it came in a 
tone that implied a very decided dissatisfaction with 
what had been done. Its tone was angry. 

" What is the name of that ship ? " 

A less distinct megaphone replied from our pilot- 
house, "The D. H. MiUer." 

" What is the ship beyond you ? '* 

" The Arkadia." 

" Why did you not stop in answer to our signals? " 

" I did not understand the signal." 

" Why did you not stop when we fired ? " 

" I thought you might be a Spaniard." 

" Have you soldiers on board? " 

" Yes. Three hundred of them." 

" Yery well ! Now I want to tell you that you are 
a natural born fool ! You have endan- 
gered the life of every man on board your ship. If 



LIFE ON A TROOP-SHIP 23 

I hadn't known that transports were coming, I should 
have filled you full of holes for not stopping when 
we fired. As for Spaniards, you need not be afraid 
of them. There is nothing on this coast that dare 
cross our lines, or even go outside the harbor. You 
will probably be stopped by five or six patrol-boats 
between here and Cape Cruz. You need not worry 
about any Spaniards, but when anything out here 
tells you to stop, YOU STOP ! Now go ahead, and 
good luck to you all." 

This little speech may have been lacking in punc- 
tilio and in those lines of fine courtesy which are a 
marked characteristic of the officers of our navy, but 
it was a marvel of directness, force, lucidity, and 
truth. Its meaning was as clear as the day. It was 
answered by a burst of hearty applause and cheers 
from the men who thronged the sides of the Miller. 
Three rousing cheers came from the little gun-boat, 
which proved to be the saucy and nervy Eagle, one 
of the most dashing and successful boats on the 
blockading line. Then the signal-lights went out 
and the dusky shape slid away into the darkness 
toward the coast. 

It was quite an episode. The men lay awake on 
the deck discussing it, and we of the cabin sat in 
pajamas, night-shirts, and underwear, for a review of 
the situation. We pronounced our ship captain to 



24 THE PORTO RICO OF TO-DAY 

be guilty of high crime and misdemeanor. The 
ranking military officer on board was authorized to 
visit the captain of the ship, and announce our sen- 
tence that he be keel-hauled, mast-headed, and then 
hung at the yard-arm, if such a contrivance could be 
found on board the steamer. The officer, hatless, 
barefooted, and clad only in undignified and unof- 
ficial underwear, proceeded on his fearful errand. 
But, upon his arrival, he evidently exercised the au- 
thority with which he was vested by reason of his 
official position, and modified the sentence. He 
proceeded to say things in a manner which may be 
learned at West Point, though the form is not in- 
cluded in the prescribed studies of that institution. 
From the sulphurous smell which was wafted through 
the cabin windows during the next few minutes, it 
was quite clear to the rest of us that the captain of 
Company F, Eleventh United States Infantry, was 
doing his duty like a man — and a sinner. Within 
those minutes, the captain of the Miller gained some 
valuable information with regard to the wisdom and 
safety of monkeying with the vessels of the United 
States Navy. 

We were obliged to stop at Daiquiri, on the Cuban 
coast, and again at Samana Bay, on the coast of San 
Domingo, to obtain supplies of water for the horses. 
We had sailed under sealed orders which, when 



LIFE ON A TEOOP-SHIP 25 

opened, gave us instructions to proceed to Fajardo, 
the northeastern point of Porto Eico. As we left the 
bay of Samana, we were met by the United States 
gun-boat Annapohs, which had been sent out to inter- 
cept the arriving transports, and to give orders for 
their procedure to Ponce, on the south coast of the 
island. They gave us news of the landing at Guan- 
ica of the detachment from Santiago, under com- 
mand of General Miles. They also told us of the 
surrender of Ponce without a shot. On the night 
of August 2d, we dropped anchor off the harbor of 
Ponce, and waited for daylight and a pilot to take 
our ship to an anchorage among the fleet of trans- 
ports and warships which had arrived before us. 



m 

EARLY DAYS ON THE ISLAND 

Porto Rico or Puerto Rico — The Carib Title— Boriquen— First 
Impressions of tlie Island — The Harbor of Ponce — Unloading 
Transports — Soldiers as Stevedores — Mutual Curiosity — La 
Playa — The City of Ponce— Appearance of the Common People 
— Pedlers— The Island Ponies— Shopping Experiences — Cour- 
tesy from a Citizen. 

The little spot in the tropical seas, which we know 
as Porto Eico, has had a somewhat peculiar experi- 
ence in the matter of its nomenclature. Through- 
out much the greater parts of its history it has either 
borne a nickname or a name which did not at all 
belong to it. Even its old Carib title has been a 
point of more or less contention among historians. 

Dr. Chanca, writing in the year 1493, calls it Buri- 
quen. Pedro Martir de Angleria, in 1494, calls it 
Burichena. Juan de la Cosa, in 1500, calls it Bori- 
quen. A writer in 1517 drops back to Buriquen. 
From the years 1535 to 1647 the form of Boriquen 
was adopted by the leading writers and historians. 
In 1788, Fray Inigo Abbad, one of the leading au- 
thorities on the history of the island, turns it into 

26 



EARLY DAYS ON THE ISLAND 27 

Borinquen, a form of doubtful correctness, but that 
which is most commonly used to-day by the island 
people. On nearly all of the maps of the island, its 
northwest corner is indicated under the title of 
Cape Borinquen. Borinquen is the spelling usually 
adopted by the local press, and a number of stores 
in different cities display the sign of "La Borin- 
quena." Later writers, among them Washington 
Irving and Emilio Castelar, use the apparently 
better authorized Boriquen, while Otto Neussel, in 
1892, gives it Burin quen. Others have given it 
Burenquen, Boricua, Burikem, Burinkem, Borichen, 
and some have simply called it Bo. Some early 
writers mention it as " La Isla de Carib." 

An effort has been made to determine the meaning 
of the name by a philological process, with results 
which seem eminently plausible. By dividing the 
word into three syllables, Bo-ri-quen, and translat- 
ing them through comparison with the same sylla- 
bles where they occur in words whose meaning is 
known, a Porto Eican authority, Sr. Dr. Cayetano 
Coll y Toste, gives the meaning as " Tierra del Yali- 
ente Senor," or practically, " The Land of the Vali- 
ant Lord." Dr. Coil's arguments appear to be rea- 
sonably exhaustive, and probably the majority of 
American people will be quite ready to accept his 
conclusions without any argument. 



28 THE POETO UICO OF TO-DAY 

Disposing of the tangle in the Carib name of the 
island, we immediately run into another in its Span- 
ish title. When el Almirante Cristobal Colon, whose 
name we have twisted into Christopher Columbus, 
discovered the island of Boriquen, on his second 
voyage, he gave it the name of San Juan Bautista 
(St. John the Baptist), in honor of the familiar 
figure of New Testament history. This name was 
applied to the island and not to a city on its coast. 
In a letter, dated November 14, 1509, from the King 
of Spain to el Almirante don Diego, son of Cristo- 
bal, reference is twice made to "la isla de San 
Juan," " the island of San Juan." 

A city, which we now know as San Juan, situated 
upon the shore of a beautiful harbor on the northern 
coast, received the name of Puerto Eico (rich port). 
In process of time the city became San Juan de 
Puerto Eico, there came a confounding of the terms, 
and the whole island became a " rich port," or har- 
bor, which is not at all a fitting name for its general 
coast line. 

For our use of the name " Porto " Eico there is no 
authority, save its establishment by common usage in 
this country. In spite of its general establishment, 
it is unquestionably a corrupt term, with no adequate 
warrant for its adoption. It is a compounding of 
the Spanish rico with the Portuguese jporto. The 



EARLY DAYS ON THE ISLAl^D 29 

Board of Geographic Names decided during Harri- 
son's administration in favor of Puerto Eico. The 
Post-office Department has adopted Porto Eico. 
The Navy Department is said to favor Puerto Eico, 
and when General Miles in his recent report used 
the latter spelling, the Government Printing Office 
changed it to Porto. 

Any radical change in the name of the island 
might be difficult of accomplishment. It would in- 
volve a universal as well as a national and local 
change. 

But as we have expelled those who, by a derange- 
ment of names of their own application, have given 
the island an inappropriate title, it might not be a 
bad idea for us to return to them the name " Puerto 
Eico," and christen the island with the long-disused 
and historic and fitting title of Boriquen. No doubt 
the northeast trade-winds have blown as refreshing- 
ly over Puerto Eico as they would have blown over 
San Juan Bautista. The coffee and the sugar-cane, 
the banana and the cocoa-nut, have flourished in 
Puerto Eico. They would undoubtedly grow quite 
as luxuriantly in the territory and potential state of 
Boriquen. 

The opening days of the month of August, 1898, 
saw busy times in the city and harbor of Ponce. 
The place had become ours almost without our ask- 



30 THE POETO RICO OF TO-DAY 

ing for it. This southern gateway of the island of 
Porto Eico had been thrown open to our army, and 
the people of the city had met us with the hand-clasp 
of a cordial welcome. For many years they had felt 
that they were being bowed down and crushed under 
the heavy hand of an oppressor. The army of the 
United States was regarded as the sword-bearing 
hand of a deliverer who, in the coming days, would 
lay aside the sword, and wield, in its place, the horn 
of plenty, scattering peace, riches, and blessings 
throughout the sun-kissed island. It Avas an armed 
and warlike force which landed there in Ponce, but, 
in the city itself, there was no use for weapons. 

The first impression of the vicinity is a pleasant 
one, even aside from the fact that almost any land 
looks pleasant after one has spent a week or two at 
sea. The picture offered by the approach is strongly 
attractive. The bay itself is a pretty one, though as 
a harbor it is somewhat treacherous. Three or four 
miles back from the coast, to the northward, a line of 
hills of from one to two thousand feet in height 
makes a picturesque sky-line. Southward lie the 
waters of the Caribbean Sea. To the eastward the 
land lies an almost level swamp and plain, covered 
with a dense growth of tropical plants and foliage. 
Just westward of the port the shore trends southward 
in a graceful curve, its line fringed with cocoa-nut 



EARLY DAYS 01^ THE ISLAND 31 

trees and rich verdure, and rising almost immediately 
to low laills, and from them to the higher range be- 
yond. The continuation of this curve, to the west- 
ward, forms the bay of Ponce. Seaward from the 
ends of the arc thus formed are a few straggling 
islands and reefs, which are wholly or partly covered 
at high water. On one of these islands off the east- 
ern point stands a light-house. The water of the bay 
shoals gradually, so much so that the lighters upon 
which the troops, horses, and cargoes were transferred 
from the ships to shore, were propelled by long 
poles, even from vessels which lay half a mile from 
the miniature apologies for wharves which skirt the 
shore in front of the custom-house. 

In the harbor and on the shore all was bustling ac- 
tivity, as the Miller came to anchor in the inner bay. 
Warships, transports, press-boats, and colliers, lay in 
close proximity to each other. Steam launches, naph- 
tha launches, sail-boats, and row-boats, wound in and 
out among them, carrying passengers and messages 
from ship to ship, or between ship and shore. Un- 
wieldy lighters loaded with horses, mules, supplies, 
and all the impedimenta of a moving army, were poled 
through the shallow water to the shore by dark-skinned 
boatmen in scanty raiment. On shore, the confusion 
was even greater than that on water. The absence 
of system and the lack of departmental organization 



32 THE POETO EICO OF TO-DAY 

were manifest everywhere. Piles of stores and equip- 
ments lined the narrow beach. Sheds were being 
erected upon the quay to cover the great heaps 
of forage and rations which had been put ashore 
there. Soldiers and civilians thronged the narrow 
streets. Officers of arriving troops did not know 
where to go with their commands, and there was no 
one to direct them. Eeporting their arrival at head- 
quarters, they were simply told to get their men and 
supplies on shore as best they could, to find a camp- 
ing ground somewhere, and to get into camp as soon 
as possible. Of order, system, or organization, there 
was no sign. 

A naval officer from the Columbia had been ap- 
pointed harbor-master, and it was only his cool head 
and quick judgment that kept matters from utter 
chaos. Of competent military staff organization 
there was nothing. There was no depot quartermas- 
ter, no depot commissary, no hospital service. Had 
we, on landing, encountered a hostile force, as there 
was some reason for thinking we should, the landing 
at Santiago would have been duplicated in all its 
disorder, with all its entailed miseries. With weeks 
of time for preparation, the force sent for the inva- 
sion of Porto Rico was a collection of troops, and 
not an organization. It was a conglomeration, and 
not an army. Those early days in Ponce showed, 



EARLY DAYS ON THE ISLAIN^D 33 

very clearly, one of two tilings : Either our system is 
not sufficiently elastic, or it is folly to form an army 
of invasion by the assembling of small detachments 
from different organizations. In theory, the line is 
the fighting force for which the staff provides, and to 
which it supplies food, clothing, ammunition, tent- 
age, and transportation. The staff is supposed to 
provide for the line, whether it be in camp or 
in the field. Weakness in the staff, means weak- 
ness in the line. Confusion in the staff, means con- 
fusion in the line. As things were managed there 
in those early days of the campaign, it is wholly 
well for us that our soldiers had so little fighting 
to do. 

For the transfer to the shore, the soldiers were 
turned into stevedores and 'longshoremen. The offi- 
cers of the American army are not generally trained 
to the business of handling and forwarding merchan- 
dise, of acting as head-stevedores, and of serving as 
captains of harbor-lighters ; but, with the American 
adaptability to circumstances, they found a way to 
get load after load to the shore to be piled there by 
details frora their commands, to await removal to 
the camp. The removal was a simpler process than 
the unloading. The army wagons accompanying the 
different commands Avere reinforced by hundreds of 
the native bullock teams. The army wagon is the 



34 THE PORTO RICO OF TO-DAY 

more rapid method of transportation, but the Porto 
Rican bullock-driver gets a fair amount of speed out 
of his team by the active use of a very long-handled 
goad and a judicious indulgence in Porto Eican pro- 
fanity. Those were busy days and profitable for the 
laborers and teamsters of Ponce. 

They were interesting days for all the people of 
the place. Large horses were not wholly a novelty 
to them, but large horses by the hundreds was 
something which they had never seen before. The 
people stood in crowds, with open mouths and star- 
ing eyes to see load after load of our big army 
horses and mules brought ashore by the lighters. 
Our tall and brawny soldiers were a type of men 
which they did not know. Our field-guns were new 
to them. The tons upon tons of supplies gave them 
a wholly new idea of national resources. The inter- 
est and the curiosity were far from being one-sided. 
To all save a few of the Americans, our new people 
and their ways, their little horses, and the products 
of the country, were as new and strange and inter- 
esting, as we and our ways were to them. For many 
days the port city of Ponce, known as La Playa — 
" the shore " — was a swarming centre into which 
were poured men by the thousand, and merchandise 
and munitions of war by the hundreds of tons, to 
wait a few brief hours until the men could be got 



EARLY DAYS ON THE ISLAND 35 

into their camps, and the materials distributed to 
their proper places. 

Although my work took me constantly back into it 
all, it was an endless relief to get away from this 
headless hurly-burly, and into the comparative quiet 
of an army camp. This also gave one a chance to 
look about a bit, and see what manner of land it was 
to which we had come. Ponce is a sort of com- 
pound place. It consists of the city proper, some 
two miles inland ; and of the port city. La Playa, 
immediately upon the shore. The port city consists 
of a half-dozen streets running parallel with the 
shore, east and west, crossed at right angles by an- 
other set, Philadelphia fashion, though they are on a 
much smaller scale in every way. The streets are 
from twenty to thirty feet in width, with sidewalks, 
where there are any at all, of about three feet. 

The buildings are chiefly commercial warehouses, 
used for storage purposes in connection with foreign 
trade. With few exceptions they are of a single 
story in height, built of rough masonry faced with 
mortar, which has scaled off in many places, reveal- 
ing the rough structure of the walls. The buildings 
are windowless, the openings being provided with 
iron or wooden shutters. To the east and to the 
west of the body of the city are small wooden dwell- 
ings, most of them of cheap construction, and few of 



36 THE PORTO RICO OF TO-DAY 

them appearing to be other than the homes of the 
laborers about the harbor. A few blocks to the 
northeast of the custom-house, which appears to be 
the focal point of the port city, stands a church, 
very Spanish in architecture and appearance, and 
much in need of paint and repairs. 

The city proper seems to be a place very well 
worth possessing. So distinctly favorable were my 
impressions after spending a iew days in Ponce, that 
I was almost tempted to modify my views on the 
subject of territorial expansion. The city lies pleas- 
antly, and is pleasant in itself. It bears no resem- 
blance to any American city. Its streets are narrow, 
and its buildings which exceed two stories in height 
are few in number. The cleanliness of its streets 
was a pleasing surprise, and the prevailing tints of 
gray and pale blue, mingled with the green of the 
shade-trees of the park and the court-yards of private 
residences, give to the whole place an atmosphere of 
pleasant coolness. With the blue sky and bright 
sunshine the city is decidedly attractive, and one in 
search of a pleasant home might easily go farther 
and fare worse. 

Approaching the city from the coast, one passes 
over two miles of an excellent macadam road kept in 
very fair condition. It connects the city proper with 
its port city on the immediate sea-coast. Along the 



EARLY DAYS ON THE ISLAND 37 

way one sees the rude shack of the negro, the home 
of modest comfort, and the yillas, which are evident- 
ly occupied by citizens of fair income. There are 
several large fields of sugar-cane, one or two sugar 
mills, an ice plant, and a Protestant church, the only 
one on the island. In the heart of the city there is 
a well-kept park, which occupies about the same area 
as an ordinary New York city block. It has shade- 
trees, walks, and flower-beds. In the centre there is 
a large pavilion of Moorish architecture. Adjoining 
the park stands the cathedral, conventional in archi- 
tecture and weather-beaten in appearance. Stores 
and residences, with the central or rear court-yard 
with their trees and shrubs, face the square and the 
cathedral. 

The arrangement of the streets of Ponce is, gen- 
erally, that of the parallelogram. They are all well 
metalled, and most of them appear to be well kept. 
In case of excessive dust, as a result of drought, it 
would be quite easy to obtain a supply of water from 
the hills by gravity pressure, which could be used 
for street-sprinkling. The place claims three hotels, 
though one who is at all familiar with American hos- 
telries is somewhat loath to apply the name of hotel 
to such establishments as those at Ponce. One gets 
a place to sleep, food to eat, and a bottle of wine, all 
at reasonable prices. 



38 THE POETO RICO OF TO-DAY 

It is anybody's guess whether the American sol- 
diers or the Porto Eico people derived the greater 
amount of entertainment from new scenes and unfa- 
miliar experiences in our newly acquired territory. 
The Ponce road, which covers the two miles of dis- 
tance between the city and the port of Ponce, was an 
endless panorama of life and movement. The points 
at either end of the road swarmed with people rid- 
ing, driving, walking ; with army-wagons and native 
ox-carts ; with squads and troops of soldiers, mount- 
ed and on foot. The procession began almost with 
the early morning "reveille," and lessened, though 
it did not cease, only with the notes of "retreat" 
at sunset. Back and forth, between the port and 
the city, and the camps beyond the city, moved two 
mingling currents, going in opposite directions. 

The native spectator was astonished not only by 
the vast number of heavy horses and mules used by 
the army, but by the great wagons piled high with 
their loads of camp supplies and equipment, and by 
the score or more of ships in the harbor, from whose 
capacious holds and between -decks the numerous fleet 
of lighters transported to the shore a seemingly end- 
less amount of material for subsistence and for war- 
fare. It was a wholly unfamiliar scene to all except 
the veiy few who had crossed the water to some large 
city of Europe or America. It was, in its way, as J 



EARLY DAYS ON THE ISLAND 39 

have intimated, an object-lesson in national wealth 
and national resources, and will leave its impression 
deeply marked upon the minds of our new citizens. 
The Americans stared at the people and their ways 
of life, which were new and strange to them. 

The common people of the island are a mixture of 
all shades of color, from full black to j^ellow, with 
here and there a paler tint. Comfort and economy 
appear to be the chief ends to be served in the mat- 
ter of wearing apparel. Neither style nor cleanliness 
seems to be of any consideration with the masses. 
Many men and women are barefooted, and many a 
dusky-skinned toddler of four or five years and 
under is wholly free from any fear of soiling his or 
her j)inafore, by reason of being wholly free from the 
pinafore — or anything else. Masculine apparel usu- 
ally consists of a battered hat, a cotton shirt, cotton 
trousers, and shoes — sometimes. Feminine apparel 
is a matter for feminine description and feminine 
ears. I only know that, among the class to which I 
am now referring, the feminine portion looks very 
baggy, very slouchy, and, usually, very dirty. Men, 
women, and children appear to occupy the bulk of 
their time in eating mangoes, that fruit which Lady 
Brassey so aptly describes by pronouncing it to be 
one of the most delicious of fruits, but to be eaten 
only in one's bath-tub. 



40 THE PORTO RICO OF TO-DAY 

When not busy eating mangoes, scores of these 
people parade the streets and the Ponce roads in 
search of wealth. The street - pedler is quite a 
feature in the cities of the island, but their number 
and their activity was vastly augmented by the in- 
flux of so large a number of possible customers. 
They peddled mangoes, cocoa-nuts, and other fruits, 
and a variety of indescribable pastes in which cocoa- 
nut appeared to be the chief ingredient. Many of 
these were quite toothsome and would be wholly en- 
joyable if one could but feel any sort of reasonable 
assurance Avith regard to the conditions imder which 
the stuff is manufactured. Feeling it to be my duty 
to investigate all local conditions as closely as pos- 
sible, I experimented with every kind of fruit, paste, 
confection, and compound, solid or liquid, offered for 
consumption and guaranteed to be of local produc- 
tion or manufacture. 

I think that the most generally satisfactory ex- 
periment which I tried was the local ice-cream served 
after the manner of that variety known in America 
as the " hoky-poky." A dusky damsel, clad in none 
too abundant and not over-immaculate raiment, in- 
timated in sign language, backed by a pleasant smile 
and the word " dos," which, under such circumstances 
does not mean two centavos, but tAvo articles or 
measures for one centavo, that it would be her pleas- 



EARLY DAYS ON THE ISLAND 41 

ure to serve the "Americano." Not wisliing to die 
alone, if death lay in the cup, I invited a group of 
soldier-men who stood by to risk their lives with me 
in an experiment on the material. I think there were 
ten of them, and I treated the whole crowd for the 
sum of seven cents, in our money. But I was quite 
agreeably disappointed. The compound appeared to 
be nothing more than frozen cocoa-nut milk slightly 
sweetened. I recommend it. It offers great possi- 
bilities in the hands of an artist. I think less highly 
of the local mango. It has a distinct flavor of tur- 
pentine, and the fibre of its pulp, getting immovably 
fixed between one s teeth, is far too greatly conducive 
to profanit}^ 

Along this main road and about the streets of 
either of the terminal cities one sees scores and 
scores of the little, scrawny, island ponies, hardly 
larger than good-sized rocking-horses, gaunt, bony, 
and pitiful, with their fruit-filled basket-work pan- 
niers surmounted by the proprietor of the outfit, who 
rides in much the attitude of one sitting on a chair, 
with his bare feet hanging in front of the horse's 
chest, and flapping about Avith every step which the 
animal takes. Some of the women and children 
carry baskets of fruit or of the fruit paste, while 
others carry ^heir wares in trays borne on the top of 
the head. Two-seated carriages, drawn by the sor- 



42 THE PORTO RICO OF TO-DAY 

riest, most scrubby and bony little horses imaginable, 
thread their more rapid way by a serpentine course 
in and out through the slowly moving throng of 
wagons and carts. One cannot help feeling sorry for 
these poor brutes of hack ponies, though as their 
structure seems to consist entirely of skin and bone, 
the constant and almost rhythmical movement of the 
driver's whip appears to have but little effect upon 
them. That whip movement is almost as methodical 
as the stroke of the piston of a Corliss engine. But 
the horses do not seem to mind it, and most of us 
are unable to deliver a lecture, in Spanish, on the 
subject of cruelty to animals. There is work in our 
new land for the S. P. C. A. 

The legal fare between the city and the port is 
fixed, I believe, at twelve and a-haK cents, Porto Kico 
money. But the only Americans who get out of it 
for any such figure are the lucky and the assertive 
who are willing to haggle or battle for their rights. 
If one be sweet-tempered and philosophical, he can 
obtain an endless amount of entertainment in essay- 
ing some commercial transaction with the local mer- 
chants. I wan'ted a rubber blanket. Rubber blank- 
ets do not seem to be a common article in Ponce. I 
visited some twenty or thirty stores. Half of them 
displayed the sign of "English Spokfen." I found 
no difference between those and the others. I began 



EARLY DAYS ON THE ISLAND 43 

my researches by a distinct enunciation of " I want a 
rubber blanket." This invariably produced some- 
thing white. Sometimes it was white duck trousers, 
sometimes a shirt or collar. My " blanket " was sup- 
posed to be my best shot at "bianco" (white). I 
then tried " poncho," which I supposed to be a Span- 
ish word. This was wholly unintelligible. " Poncho " 
is a purely South American term. I then fell back 
on sign language. For two hours I went through 
this process. I tried words and then gymnastics. I 
put my muscular system through a series of antics 
and contortions that, in America, would either have 
landed me in a lunatic asylum or a circus. I got 
everything but the thing I wanted. The range of 
articles offered in response to my gibbering and 
my antics extended from a mackintosh to a box 
of sardines. I failed to see where the sardines 
came in. 

I visited stores of various kinds, and found them 
well supplied with the merchandise of their different 
lines, the stock neatly kept and well displayed. The 
goods were the manufacture of different nations, a 
few American, some French, English, and German. 
Spain was unduly represented, through the opera- 
tion of tariff laws which were distinctly in favor of 
that country'. Prices were probably not unreason- 
able, considering the cost of freight and the ex- 



44 THE PORTO RICO OF TO-DAY 

orbitant duty. Flour, on which there is a high 
tariff, was quoted at thirty to thirty-five cents per 
pound in Porto Eico money, equivalent to one-half 
of that amount in our money. The campaign hat 
which I wore, and for which I paid $1 in Chat- 
tanooga, I was told would sell for $3.50, Porto Eico 
money, in Ponce. I was wearing a brown canvas 
shooting-coat for which I paid $1.50 in Jacksonville. 
I was told that the same sum would not even purch- 
ase the cloth to make it in Ponce. Ice is quoted at 
about the same price as that in most of our South- 
ern cities where ice is manufactured. On cigars I 
thought I did quite well. I called for such a cigar 
as was used by the general run of smokers. I re- 
ceived a very fair article of the weed, free smoking 
and agreeable in flavor, made from native tobacco. 
I am not an expert in " twofers," but I have often 
paid a dime for a less satisfactory cigar than those 
for which I paid the equivalent of $2 per hundred, 
American money, in Ponce. 

There is no doubt that we were welcome visitors in 
those days, though we have somewhat modified the 
heartiness with which we were received, through situa- 
tions some of which could, while others could not, 
have been avoided. At that time I saw no scowls, 
Scores of men who, from their dress and bearing, were 
evidently of the best class of citizens, bowed, smiled, 



EARLY DAYS ON THE ISLAND 45 

and saluted. There was no subservience, only marked 
courtesy and cordial hospitality. I wanted some 
nisperos. The merchant to whom I applied had none, 
but he summoned a messenger to guide me to a pri- 
vate residence a third of a mile away where I could 
get them fresh from the trees. The place, which had 
once been a fine one, was somewhat gone to decay, 
but the courteous gentleman who owned it welcomed 
me and sent for chairs to be placed for us in the cool 
shade of a huge mango-tree. The senora joined us, 
and a small black-skinned urchin was sent to gather 
the fruit I wanted. Naked and half-naked chil- 
dren, apparently belonging to the colored servants, 
played about us in company with three or four 
puppies. 

I tendered pay for the fruit. It was refused, and I 
was told in the old form of Spanish hospitality that 
the fruit was mine, the trees on which it grew were 
mine, the house was mine, and its proprietor my most 
obedient servant. I fancy that he would make a good 
effort to hang on to his real estate if I had accepted his 
statement in strict literalness, but I was better off by 
more nisperos than I could carry. The gentleman's 
satisfaction with the new condition was quiet, but it was 
evidently honest and earnest. It was less vociferous 
than that displayed by our waiter in a cafe where an- 
other citizen was asked his feeling in the matter of the 



46 THE POETO RICO OF TO-DAY 

change of affairs. The waiter overheard the question, 
and quite brought down the house by his vigorous 
howl of " Viva los Americanos.'^ But the same senti- 
ment appeared to pervade all classes. A local paper 
changed its title to La Nueva Era, Ano L Numero L 
(The New Era. Year I. Number I.) 



IV 

THE CITY OF PONCE 

Our Reception — Busy Days — Two Centres of Activity — Amusements 
— Police Department— Fire Department — The Market— Ponce 
Stores— A Lesson in Spanish. 

We went to Porto Rico expecting battles. "We 
arrived there and were invited to receptions. It 
was a somewhat incongruous situation, with a side 
which savored of the opera bouffe. Such of our ene- 
mies as had been stationed in the vicinity of our 
landing, made a hasty and undignified exit, with only 
an occasional shot as they ran. The people bade us 
welcome, hung out American flags, and called down 
the blessings of Heaven upon our heads. Like all 
invading armies, we had carried with us a very large 
spirit of belligerency. We were much puzzled to 
know what to do with it when we got to Porto Rico. 
A portion of it was kept alive for the resistance which 
was anticipated as the army moved northward across 
the island. The rest of it became transmuted into 

sociability with a people who, immediately upon our 

47 



48 THE PORTO EICO OF TO-DAY 

arrival, pronounced themselves Americans, and gave 
their address as Porto Eico, U. S. A. 

For the first two weeks everything was in a state 
of turmoil, but there were two strongly marked cen- 
tres of activity. One of these was the custom-house 
at the shore city ; the other the Hotel Fran^ais in the 
city proper. The custom-house served not only for 
its special purpose, but became, as well, the military 
head-quarters, the United States post-oiSce, the tele- 
graph station, and the place where everybody went 
to find out a great deal which could not be learned 
there. Transports arrived almost daily, bringing 
more troops and more supplies and more confusion. 
Plans were being formulated for the continuance of 
the campaign, and such troops as were designated 
for immediate participation in it, were moved for- 
ward as rapidly as possible. The rest were sent into 
camp in the vicinity of the city. 

To those who find pleasure in the study of crowds, 
La Play a was a rich and profitable field. The crowd 
was not of the dense variety. It was rather a throng, 
active, restless, ebullient. Soldiers, civilians, and la- 
borers moved uneasily about, some in idle curiosity, 
some seeking for a particular person or place, but the 
majority busily engaged in the piling up or the re- 
moval of forage, rations, and supplies. Every avail- 
able native laborer was set to doing something. 



THE CITY OF PONCE 49 

Army officers bustled about superintending the 
transfer of the men and materials belonging to their 
commands. Naval officers sauntered about clad 
in immaculate white duck. There was an infinity of 
detail, but the general impression left upon the mind 
of the observer, was only that of a kaleidoscope in 
which the bits of color were men in uniform, horses, 
cannons, and boxes of hardtack and canned goods, 
with the blue water of the bay for a background. 

The streets were a seemingly inextricable jumble 
of army wagons, carriages, and bullock-teams. The 
rumble and rattle of the slowly moving train was 
punctuated frequently by the shouts of the bullock 
drivers, and occasionally by the compliments paid 
in emphatic American by some driver of a heavily 
loaded army wagon, to some unfortunate goad- 
wielder or hack-driver who blocked his passage. 
That the anathemas were not understood by those 
on whose heads they fell, made no shadow of differ- 
ence. Their import was fully realized, and they usu- 
ally proved quite effective. 

A secondary focus of activity at the Playa was found 
in an establishment wherein one could obtain a wide 
variety of forms of liquid refreshment. I Avas told 
that before the arrival of the Americans, the place 
was on the very verge of bankruptcy. A week later, 
the proprietor was reckoned among the financially 



50 THE POKTO EICO OF TO-DAY 

solid men of tlie place. Naturally, more or less of our 
men overdid matters in their efforts to find the most 
cooling and refreshing compound. It became neces- 
sary to issue a military order prohibiting the sale of 
intoxicants to soldiers. The order was, of course, 
obeyed, but it is always a remarkable fact that many 
men can be overcome by non-alcoholic compounds, 
or by alcoholic compounds sold under some other 
name. A guard-house was established in one corner 
of the custom-house, and it was seldom without 
guests. 

At the uptown centre, the throng was almost equally 
active, though its interests were of different character. 
The Playa was the centre of industry. The Hotel 
Frangais was the centre of recreation and sociability. 
The Playa was the official military head- quarters. 
The hotel was the head-quarters of the newspaper 
correspondents, and the resort for army and naval 
officers off duty. It was a quaint old place with 
nothing at all to recommend it particularly as a hotel 
under ordinary conditions. Its dungeon-like closets 
in which its guests were supposed to sleep, must 
have furnished infinitely more satisfaction to the 
fleas and mosquitoes than they did to those who fur- 
nished feeding-grounds for those insects. The stone- 
paved coffee-room with its one long table, was at- 
tractive to those who frequented it, rather by reason 



THE CITY OF PONCE 61 

of what tliey themselves brought to it than because 
of what was served upon it. 

That room was often the scene of honest and 
hearty joviality. Its frequenters were men who had 
seen something, and had something to say about 
what they had seen. Some had been through the 
Santiago campaign as observers, and some had taken 
part in it. Correspondents were there who had spent 
weeks on despatch-boats, and naval officers were 
there who had spent weeks on the blockade. Army 
officers, both line and staff men, w^ere there to tell of 
their experiences. Many a man will remember those 
days with pleasure. There was much drinking, but 
it was of a mild type, and pre-eminently social in its 
nature. Lemonade and claret-cup were the popular 
refreshments, and the heavier fluids found but little 
demand. The local prices were seriously affected. 
Lemonade was served in flagons. For the first few 
days this cost ten centavos the flagon. Then the 
price went up, and it cost ten centavos for each glass 
served from the flagon. Mineral water rose to forty 
centavos the pint bottle, and the attendants grew 
very keen for tips. 

The hotel was the news-centre. All was told 
there that the various news-gatherers had to tell. 
Those who had driven out to the "firing-line," to 
" El front," as it was facetiously called, on the pre- 



62 THE POETO EICO OF TO-DAY 

vious day, told of their observations at that position. 
Those who had been to head-quarfcers at the Plaja, 
told of what was to be heard there. Army move- 
ments and processes were subjects of comment and 
criticism. The probability of an early peace and 
the chances of recall were topics of profound inter- 
est to many. The evening dinner was a time of 
good-natured uproar and clamor. The house was 
overcrowded, its service and facilities were inade- 
quate for the multitude which besieged it. Unless 
one came sharply upon the hour for the opening of 
the dining-room, it was well for him if he brought no 
very eager appetite with him. 

Under ordinary circumstances I should set Ponce 
down as a disappointing place to visiting strangers, 
until they had made the acquaintance of some 
of those charming people who make the city their 
home. Its surroundings are undeniably attractive, 
but the stranger finds a dearth of entertainment in 
the city itself. The place claims a population of be- 
tween twenty and thirty thousand in the city proper, 
with jurisdiction over a surrounding territory the in- 
clusion of which leads to the occasional publication 
of figures ranging from forty to forty-five thousand 
as the population of the city of Ponce. The condi- 
tions which existed during my visit to the place 
were, of course, abnormal. It was, therefore, not 



THE CITY OF PONCE 53 

easy to note the usual resources in tlie matters of 
entertainment and interest for either the people of 
the city or for those who might visit it. 

The theatre, called La Perla — the Pearl — is a 
structure of some pretensions, in which perform- 
ances are given from time to time by such companies 
of theatrical or opera people as may appear. Most 
of these come out from Spain, and make the tour of 
the West Indies. Local talent also appears in occa- 
sional performances. The building is chiefly of iron 
and marble, and its cost is said to have exceeded 
70,000 pesos. Adjoining the theatre is a large and 
well-equipped Casino, or club-house. There are va- 
rious minor clubs and organizations, and one or two 
theatres of inferior character. Aside from these it is 
not easy to see just what society in Ponce does to 
amuse itself outside of private social functions. In 
common with very many of the Spanish-American 
cities, there is the Sunday night promenade on the 
plaza. This occurs to some extent during the week, 
but Sunday night the attendance is larger and more 
attention is paid to dress. It becomes a sort of 
dress parade for the better class of people. The 
band plays, and the throng moves back and forth, 
up and down, up and down, the length of the 
plaza. Others sit in rented chairs along the sides 
and ends, and watch them as they walk. To me it 



54 THE PORTO RICO OF TO-DAY 

seemed a kind of social treadmill ; though I could 
readily see how it might have become — as it prob- 
ably was a recognized meeting-place — a sort of gen- 
eral public reception at which everyone met every- 
one else, with the opportunity for a chat if it was 
wished, a dignified bow, or a cold shoulder. 

Ponce had a police department. It appeared to 
be composed chiefly of good-looking young fellows 
who wore a uniform and carried a sword. They 
seemed to be a mild, inoffensive lot, and presented 
no special evidence of power to quell a riot or to 
handle an exciting election. It is doubtful if they 
see much service in either of those lines. The Porto 
Ricans are not a turbulent race, nor are they given 
to intoxication and nocturnal disturbances. I could 
see but little use for the police at all. I did see one 
stop a horse who was trotting up the street after hav- 
ing capsized the cart to which he was attached, in 
turning a corner too sharply. I also saw one of 
these limbs of the law shake his head sadly as he 
watched an intoxicated countryman ride unsteadily 
along the way, shouting " Viva Puerto Eico." I saw 
another risk his life in expostulating with two street 
pedlers who were discussing, with some animation, 
their individual rights to occupy a certain shady 
comer. A New York ''copper " would have made 
them " move on," or would have collared both of 



THE CITY OF PONCE 55 

them and taken them to the station-house on a 
charge of disorderly conduct. 

Ponce has a fire department which consists of an 
old-fashioned " tub " hook and ladder truck, and a 
couple of hose-reels. These are housed in a flam- 
boyantly decorated structure in the rear of the 
cathedral, which gives it a facing on the principal 
street. The firemen wear flaming red shirts, a very 
broad belt, and dark trousers. They have very little 
to do except to draw their pay and stand around 
looking as if they were extremely useful. From the 
presence of a bugler among their number, I infer 
that their orders when in action are sounded upon 
the bugle instead of roared unintelligibly through a 
brass trumpet or other medium. The old-fashioned 
brass trumpet would seem more in keeping with the 
general outfit of the Ponce fire department, but the 
penetrating cry of the bugle really does seem better 
adapted for the purpose for which it is used. The 
swarm of these red-shirted fire-fighters, which is in 
over-ample evidence at performances in the theatre, 
suggests, almost too plainly, that there is need for 
their presence. This is not the fact, probably, but 
their presence in such number brings up the idea. 
The water-supply of the city is obtained by gravity 
pressure from a stream in the hills, and it would 
seem as though a readjustment of the fire depart- 



56 THE POUTO PJCO OF TO-DAY 

ment miglit be effected with a considerable economy 
to the city treasury. 

The market is doubtless fully up to the require- 
ments of the place, but it was far behind that of 
Mayaguez, though the latter is a less populous city. 
Doubtless also the local way of getting supplies for 
the table is wholly satisfactory to the people, but it 
was lacking in many features which Americans find 
convenient and desirable. The market opens at 
some unearthly hour in the morning. I never 
spent a night there to note the hour at which the 
first arrival put in his appearance. I did stop there 
one morning on my way to San Juan, to get a cup of 
coffee. It was four o'clock and pitch dark, but the 
coffee was there, hot and strong. So were at least 
fifty or seventy-five people. I could not see how 
many might be out in the darkness beyond, but 
there were those in the immediate vicinity of the 
coffee-stands. All the way along the road, for the 
first ten miles of our journey that morning, we met 
the people coming in with their little stock of gar- 
den products to be exposed for sale. How early the 
buyers turn out, I do not know, but the sellers are 
certainly of the " early bird " variety. 

A brief acquaintance with the Ponce market would 
lead the average observer to a conclusion that it was 
a poor man's institution. The same will hold true 



THE CITY OF PONCE 57 

of all the city markets of Porto Eico. One rarely 
sees a well-dressed buyer. All seem to be of the 
poorer classes, and the smallness of their purchases 
seems to indicate a necessity for economy. Many of 
them, however, are the servants of the people of the 
better class, doing the daily marketing for the family 
by which they are employed. One of the noticeable 
features of all these island cities and towns is the 
absence from the streets and stores of ladies whose 
apparel and demeanor would indicate them as of 
well-to-do families. Their absence arises from the 
fact that it is generally regarded as a proceeding of 
doubtful respectability for a lady to go about the 
streets, unless accompanied by a duenna or by some 
male member of the family. These are not always 
available, and the processes of marketing and shop- 
ping are commonly carried on through servants or by 
means of messengers from the stores. 

One also misses certain kinds of American stores, 
notably those connected with food supplies. The 
markets close at noon. All purchases of meats, veg- 
etables, and fruits are supposed to be, and must be, 
made before that hour. I did not learn the re- 
sources for supplies in the case of the arrival of un- 
expected guests, whose presence would necessitate 
a more extensive provision than that made for the 
family. One could not send around the corner, or 



58 THE PORTO RICO OF TO-DAY 

a few blocks down the street, and get a roast, or a 
chop, or a fowl, a fish, or a steak, at any time when it 
might be wanted. There was no convenient provi- 
sion store, or green-grocer, from which one could ob- 
tain a bit of lettuce or a bunch of celery. There was 
no convenient fruit-store. Here and there, in some 
out-of-the-way corner, one might find a little shop 
where some kinds of fruit, and possibly a few vege- 
tables, might be obtained; but the stock of such 
places was not particularly temptiug. One missed 
also the American grocery-store, with its cleanly kept 
assortment of attractive foods. To market or to 
shop in these places one must go through a process 
of special education, to learn just where to go for the 
things wanted. No doubt Porto Eican ways are just 
as good as American ways, when one becomes ac- 
customed to them ; but at first one is struck by 
the seeming incongruity of finding hardware and 
saddlery in a dry -goods store; of buying pota- 
toes and cigarettes in a place which gives all evi- 
dence of being devoted to the sale of delicatessen^ 
and of buying bread and native rum over the same 
counter. The adjustment of lines of merchan- 
dise in Porto Eico savors, in many cases, of the 
back-country districts of Maine and North Caro- 
lina. 

A good knowledge of the Spanish language is of 



THE CITY OF PONCE 59 

course a desirability in any Spanish or Spanish- 
American country. But it is not a necessity. There 
may be times when one has to sacrifice a bit of 
dignity in order to get what is wanted, but most 
of us have enough of that to be able to spare a little 
of it. I saw one chap, at a breakfast-table, flap his 
arms while he imitated the cackle of a hen and 
formed an ovoid with his thumbs and fingers. But 
he got the eggs he wanted. One gets along very 
well by remembering two words and carrying a small 
list of Spanish names for common articles. Quiero 
(ke-a-ro) means, " I want," and cuanto (koo-ahn-to) is 
an abbreviation for a sentence which means, briefly, 
*'how much? " It is all very simple. Say " quiero," 
and the name of the thing wanted; then say " cuan- 
to," and produce all the money you have, and permit 
the one with whom you are dealing to help himself 
to all he wants ; then take your purchase and your 
departure, saying, '^mucJias gracias" (many thanks). 
This latter expression serves a double purpose. It 
gives the dealer an idea you are thanking him for 
what he has done for you ; but it is in reality your 
expression of gratitude to a beneficent Providence 
that, out of your little store of wealth, that dealer 
has left you even a few centavos. But it is not nec- 
essary to learn " mucJias gracias" Just say, " Thank 
you," and grin, exactly as one does when leaving the 



60 THE POETO RICO OF TO-DAY 

dentist whose kindly services have spared one's life, 
and no more. 

My own command of Castilian was only a little 
less deficient when I came away than it was when I 
arrived out. Yet I spent three months there and 
travelled over the greater part of the island. I ad- 
mit that it was a little awkward at times, but I al- 
ways contrived in some way to get what I wanted, 
if it was obtainable, and to get where I wanted to, 
if the roads were passable. Some might recommend 
another verb, such as the interrogatory of the verb 
" tener" to have, in place of my, to me, quite satisfac- 
tory, "gwiero." But '^ tiene usted'' asks a question 
which may involve a further conversation. Thus, if 
one wants eggs with his breakfast, and says to the 
waiter, " Tiene usted Jiuevos," the waiter may simply 
reply, " Si, Senor.'' Then the senor must be able to 
go on with " Traigame dos huevos, al plato,'' or some- 
thing of the kind. My '^ quiero dos huevos " informs 
him at once that " I want two eggs." If he replies, 
" Si, Senor,'' I know that he will bring them without 
fui'ther conversation. If he says, " No hay/' I know 
that the house is out of eggs, and that I must fish 
around in my vocabulary for something else to 
" quieroJ' 

In travelling one most " wants " the things which 
&re essential — food, a bed, and means of transporta- 



THE CITY OF P0:N'CE 61 

tion. A brief list of nouns and names is easily com- 
mitted to memory. Additions will be readily made 
to the list as one moves about. Such a list, sup- 
ported by the useful ^^quiero,'^ and the almost equally 
useful " cuanto,^' and such other words as came to me 
during my wanderings, took me through cities and 
towns, and over many miles of Porto Eican high- 
ways. 



V 

INTO THE COFFEE DISTRICT 

The Town of Yauco — The Sunday Morning Market — Fruits and Veg- 
etables— Jacky and the Natives— Guanica— Our First Landing 
Place — A Horse Trade — On the Road to Adjuntas — A Mountain 
Town — The Good Padre — The Kitchen-maid and her Cigar. 

Yauco and Guanica are two of the places wliich 
are said to have been captured by the American 
forces on the island of Porto Eico. Yauco is the 
principal place and is quite a little city. Guanica is 
a straggling village on the coast, some six miles to 
the southward of Yauco, for which place it serves as 
a port and as a summer-resort for the well-to-do cit- 
izens of its larger neighbor. Yauco is the present 
terminus of the Ponce and Yauco division of the 
Compania de los Ferrocarriles de Puerto Rico. The 
drainage of Yauco is admirable. The town stands 
on a hill-side which is about as steep as the roof of a 
house. The business portion of the town, and its 
better buildings, are upon the lower slopes, w^hile 
cottages and cabins straggle away to the higher and 
steeper regions. The town has a considerable French 

62 



INTO THE COFFEE DISTEICT 63 

population, though I am told that the majority are 
Corsican rather than French. 

The place is the commercial centre for a consid- 
erable district of productive back country, and one 
of the outlets, through its port city of Guanica, for 
the coffee district. One of the interesting sights, for 
the visitor, is the plaza on Sunday morning. So far 
as my observation goes, the people of Porto Rico go 
to market on Sunday morning instead of going to 
church. Had I seen as many people in church that 
Sunday as I saw buying and selling on the plaza, I 
should have set Yauco down as a religious, if not a 
pious, place. As it was the church was deserted, 
while the plaza was packed with a throng of chatter- 
ing traders which numbered some fifteen hundred 
people. The entire square was bordered with ox- 
carts and pannier-laden ponies belonging to people 
the most of whom had come to sell twenty-five cents' 
worth of fruit or vegetables, and to buy a few cents' 
worth of something they wanted. I confess to a 
personal disregard of the day to the extent of an in- 
teresting hour among the crowd, and the purchase of 
sundry fruits for the purpose of learning the prices. 
American money was then bringing a premium of 
seventy-five per cent. Ten cents, Porto Eican, was 
therefore, the equivalent of about six cents American. 
I bought a large, fine pineapple for ten cents, Porto 



64 THE PORTO EICO OF TO-DAY 

Bican. I paid twelve cents for a large muskmelon. 
I bought oranges at two for a cent, lemons at three 
for a cent, guavas at six for a cent, all Porto Eican 
money. 

Most of the trading was done upon a small scale. 
The seller arranged his or her little stock of wares 
upon a mat on the ground, dividing it into little piles 
which sold for one or two centavos per pile accord- 
ing to the ruling prices of the article offered. 
Squashes were cut into sections of suitable sizes. 
The purchase of a whole squash would probably 
cause the purchaser to be suspected of lunacy. The 
variety offered gives some idea of agricultural pos- 
sibilities, though nothing which is cultivated gives 
evidence of proper care or development. Things are 
evidently planted and left to a kindly nature for re- 
sults. If the beneficent dame sees fit to put nothing 
on a tomato vine any larger than a robin's egg, and 
nothing on an egg-plant any larger than one's fist, 
the native accepts the situation and appears to be sat- 
isfied. The collection offered included a large variety 
of native fruits, mangoes, cocoa-nufcs, guavas, quenapas, 
lemons, oranges, pineapples, pomegranates, and others 
whose names are unfamiliar to us. In garden vege- 
tables, there were beans, green peas, corn, peppers, 
egg-plant, melons, yams, and squashes. I saw none 
of the root-plants here, such as beets, turnips, and 



INTO THE COFFEE DISTRICT Qo 

carrots, though I saw some of them in the market 
at Ponce. Garlic was there in quantity. But that 
speaks for itself. 

The Sunday morning market service begins at an 
early hour, and lasts until about noon, when all that 
has not been sold, and all that has been purchased 
and not eaten on the spot, is packed on the carts or 
in the panniers, and the congregation starts in every 
direction on its homeward way. It has transacted its 
little business, and has heard the news and the gos- 
sip which will form the basis for its conversation 
during the week. It seems a petty life, but it is the 
life of thousands. I saw it in the town of Adjuntas 
as I saw it here, and in the larger Ponce as I saw it 
in these country towns. Though the plaza is the 
common work-day market-place for such towns as 
have no regular market building, Sunday is the great 
market day. 

During one of the days spent in Yauco, my atten- 
tion was attracted by repeated shouts in the street. 
Upon going to investigate the occasion of the dis- 
turbance, I found that it was caused by a semi- 
intoxicated jacky from one of the monitors lying in 
Guanica Bay. Jacky was celebrating a day of shore- 
leave by experimenting with the sailing qualities of 
a Porto Kican pony. He was cruising up and down 
the principal street at a six-knot gait, and shouting 



QQ THE POETO EICO OF TO-DAY 

at the top of his voice, "Viva Porto Eico." This 
was answered by the vigorous yells of some two 
hundred natives Vvho were assembled, " Yiva los 
Americanos," "Yiva Puerto Rico Americano." There 
was no question of their sincerity. No man would 
yell as they did without meaning it. Jacky would 
howl his " Viva Porto Rico," and the crowd would 
come back at him with its vociferous response. All 
hands were having a good time. A little squad of 
the provost guard marched up to see what was going 
on. It grinned and marched back again. 

The road from Yauco to Guanica takes one imme- 
diately past the scene of the first " battle " on Porto 
Rican soil. The Spanish army, consisting of a small 
company of soldiers, occupied the spacious yard which 
surrounds the large house and extensive outbuildings 
of M. Mariani, a French sugar-planter of great wealth 
and of long residence on the island. A high brick wall 
along the southern side of the yard formed the Span- 
ish defence, from which point of vantage they ex- 
changed a few leaden compliments with the American 
soldiery of General Henry's command which was 
posted on tlie hill beyond. After a few hours of no 
very energetic warfare, during which a small casualty 
list was made upon both sides, the Spaniards with- 
drew to make room for a deputation of the prominent 
citizens of Yauco, who extended a warm hand of wel- 



INTO THE COFFEE DISTRICT 67 

come to the invaders, and declared it their pleasure 
to become a part of the American people. This epi- 
sode ended the war in the immediate vicinit^^ and 
the so-called " battle " wound up with a reception. 

Guanica is a pretty little harbor, with a narrow en- 
trance, flanked by high hills, which descend sharply 
to the water's edge. It presents possibilities as a 
seaside resort. Its surroundings are charming. A 
pleasant and refreshing breeze blows from off the 
water. Pleasant drives could easily be laid out, which 
would take one either among the mountains or along 
the coast. There is still-water bathing inside the 
headlands and surf-bathing beyond them. There is 
said to be duck-shooting on a near-by lake, and there 
is dove-shooting in the forest for those who like pot- 
hunting. Just now Guanica is rather out of the 
world, but the construction of a Porto Eico belt-line 
railroad, and the visits of the American tourist, will 
be likely to make a considerable difference in the life 
of what is now a sleepy but a beautiful little spot. 

The " Military Notes of Puerto Rico," a small pam- 
phlet issued by the government for the benefit of 
commandiug officers in that island, gives Adjuntas as 
follows : *' Adjuntas, a town of 2,320 inhabitants, with 
a jurisdiction numbering 18,820 ; situated fifteen and 
a half miles from Ponce. It has a post-office and a 
telegraph station." Adjuntas is another of the Porto 



68 THE POETO EICO OF TO-DAY 

Eican towns which we " captured." It was taken by 
General Key Stone, who rode into it, accompanied by 
a score or so of soldiers, as he made his way across the 
island to Arecibo for the purpose of investigating the 
condition of the highways in that portion of the 
island. At army head-quarters. General Stone's in- 
vasion of the region was regarded as somewhat pre- 
mature. That route was to have been traversed by a 
triumphant army under the command of General Guy 
V. Henry. As matters stood, there was no glory to 
be got out of it, but General Stone's preliminary 
excursion robbed it of what little of eclat might pos- 
sibly have attached to it. 

I began my personal campaign against the con- 
quered city of Adjuntas by the purchase of a horse 
for 100 pesos, or about $50 in American money. The 
size of the beast left me in doubt as to the easiest way 
to carry him with me, whether in my grip-sack or m 
my pocket. But I decided that, as I had bought him 
for the purpose of riding him, I would make use of 
his four legs to aid my own two. His former owner 
drove him into the proper position between my legs, 
and I sat down on him. But there was as far as he 
would go. I applied the spur, and he started up- 
ward, but not onward. As my immediate destination 
was Adjuntas and not the spacious firmament, I stood 
up and cancelled the trade. I decided to hire instead 



INTO THE COFFEE DISTRICT 0^ 

of buy. I referred to my vocabulary, and said: 
" Quiero un coche para AdjuntaSy manana" wbich was 
as near as I could come to saying that I wanted a 
" carriage for Adjuntas, to-morrow." I said it to all 
the proprietors of carriages who would listen to me, 
and their name was legion. I supplemented it with 
a very business-like " cuanto ? " After an hour or so 
of saying "51," and "hueno" to something like a thou- 
sand questions and statements of which I did not 
understand one single word, I succeeded in contract- 
ing for " un coche, un cochero, y dos cahallos" or, a car- 
riage, a driver, and two horses, for about ten per cent, 
less than their assessed valuation. The party of the 
second part assured me that it would be necessary to 
send on two relays for so great a journey — fifteen 
and a half miles. 

I was breakfasting on hardtack and "slum" with 
my good friends of C Battery of the Seventh Artil- 
lery, when my '* coche y cochero " appeared on the fol- 
lowing morning. The first six or seven miles of the 
journey to Adjuntas are over a fairly level and well- 
made macadamized road, past acres of banana- 
groves and through a country of great beauty and 
attractiveness. As the road winds and twists around 
the hill-sides farther back from the shore, the valleys 
open up long vistas to the southward, with the ocean 
for a background. Much of it, except for the dis- 



70 THE PORTO RICO OF TO-DAY 

taut water, brought strongly to mind some of tlie 
wilder and more precipitous portions of the North 
Carolina mountains in its general topography. 
There is but little level ground. The area is almost 
wholly destitute of those " bottom lands," which are 
usually found among the hill countries. Cottages 
by the wayside were literally perched there. The 
front sill lay immediately upon the edge of the road- 
way, while the rear of the house rested upon sup- 
ports of eight or ten feet in height, so steep was the 
slope in many cases. 

Here and there one finds a more pretentious villa 
on the crest of a little knoll, with a more or less fan- 
tastic arched gateway bearing the name of the place, 
a common practice in Spanish countries. Contrast- 
ed with these houses of better type, one sees the 
rude cabin with its rough framework covered with 
the large sheets of the fibrous bark, which finds a 
general use in lands where is found growing the spe- 
cies of palm from which the material is obtained. 
Many of these structures are exceedingly pictu- 
resque, but their principal advantage would seem to 
lie in the fact that one can throw anything which is 
not wanted out of the back window, and see it roll 
away down the hill for any number of feet. It dis- 
poses of all manner of refuse and debris without lit- 
tering up the back-yard. 



INTO THE COFFEE DISTEICT 71 

It is a somewhat tedious ride to climb the long 
hill on the Adjuntas road, and the enjoyment of the 
ride is modified by the fact that, out of consideration 
for the wretched little beasts used on the island as 
carriage - horses, the merciful man is compelled to 
walk the greater part of the way. With such a road 
as might be easily constructed the trip would be 
wholly delightful. Brilliant flowers, giant yuccas, 
palms, and brakes which assume almost tree-like pro- 
portions, border the highways and cover the hill- 
sides. Banana-groves, the rich dark green of the 
mango-trees, and all the foliage and undergrowth of 
the tropics ; the winding road opening an unbroken 
series of exquisite landscape pictures ; and the 
dashing mountain - streams plunging and tumbling 
over rocky beds and falls, give the nature-lover a 
continuous feast along this beautiful bit of a beauti- 
ful country. The crest of the hill is reached about 
two miles out of Adjuntas, and a sharp descent 
brings the traveller into the valley to follow the 
course of a merry little stream, past quaint little 
homes which lie in the suburbs of the town ; and, at 
last, to the door of a quaint little hotel where one 
gets a fair bed, and a very good meal, and a cordial 
welcome. 

The district of which the town of Adjuntas is the 
principal centre, includes a large slice of the best 



72 THE PORTO RICO OF TO-DAY 

coffee-growing territory of the island. There the 
coffee industry assumes very considerable propor- 
tions, and one sees the plant growing upon all sides. 
An excellent article is produced, and good prices are 
usually obtained for it. The greater portion of the 
crop finds its market on the European continent. A 
Porto Eican coffee plantation does not present any 
very marked difference in appearance from the rest 
of the country. The bush, or shrub, growing to 
some eight or ten feet in height, is set out on no ap- 
parent system, and grows mixed up with bananas 
and forest timber. Until one knows what it is, one 
might easily pass a whole plantation and believe 
that he had seen nothing but a somewhat scattered 
forest with its usual undergrowth of scrub and 
thicket. Locally, the coffee is served in small cups, 
and is very black and very strong. But it is also 
excellent. 

The town proper occupies a beautiful location in a 
narrow valley, whose borders rise sharply and steep- 
ly to the summits of the surrounding hills. A little 
stream, which the people of the place dignify with 
the title of El Eio (the river), runs through the town, 
and makes itself very usef al for laundry purpose a 
la Porto Kico. In the heart of the village an open 
space is turned into a public park, with crosswalks, 
shrubbery, and brilliant flowers. It is not over- 



INTO THE COFFEE DISTRICT 73 

neatly kept, and there is no particular evidence of 
skilful gardening; but the place is quite attractive, 
and constitutes a pleasant relief to some of its rather 
dingy surroundings. Here and there a private resi- 
dence shows a rank garden-growth of bright-hued 
flowers. But, on the whole, the long and straggling 
town is not particularly attractive. Most of its 
houses are mere cabins, and few of even the better 
class are at all home-like, from the American stand- 
point. The Spanish people and their kindred would 
seem to have but two ideas regarding a residence. 
There appears to be no mean between the casa, 
with its patio, abutting immediately upon the side- 
walk and w^all to wall with others very much like 
it, and the country-seat a good distance from any 
neighbors. Naturally, the poorer classes can have 
neither ; but in a country where land is sufficiently 
abundant, there is no visible reason for setting every 
little cabin immediately upon the edge of the road- 
way, and within two or three feet of the buildings on 
either side of it. 

The city hall is an unpretentious structure, one 
story in height, and painted, like many Porto Kican 
buildings of all classes, a pale blue, with white trim- 
mings. In it are the offices of the alcalde, a func- 
tionary who seems to be something more than a 
mayor and something less than a governor. There 



74 THE POETO RICO OF TO-DAY 

are also the offices of the different legal and official 
dignitaries of the district. From the numerical rela- 
tion of the police force to the population, one might 
infer that Adjuntas was a sort of Porto Kican *^ Bit- 
ter Creek," where everybody was bad, and the higher 
up one went, the more and more wicked he found the 
people. In the United States, a village which needed 
a policeman to every hundred of its inhabitants, 
would be shunned by all, and would soon be desert- 
ed by all who did not stay behind for the express 
purpose of killing each other. Such a town in the 
United States would have a constable or two, or a 
marshal with a deputy. 

Adjuntas claims a population of 2,300, and has a 
chief of police with a force of twenty men under him. 
They are in ample evidence in the principal streets, 
dressed in suits of linen with narrow blue -and- white 
stripe, and wearing a belt and a sword. They are a 
rather light-weight lot, and a fair specimen of the 
Bowery tough would probably have but little trouble 
in doing up a half-dozen or so of them in the course 
of an evening, without breaking his gait. 

The spiritual needs of the community are cared for 
by a most excellent man. It is a pleasure to render 
even so slight a tribute to the good Padre Antonio 
Millon, the parish priest of Adjuntas. Although a 
Spanish sympathizer, this gentleman sunk all else, 



INTO THE COFFEE DISTRICT 75 

and remembered only those words, spoken so many 
centuries ago, " If thine enemy hunger, feed him ; if 
he thirst, give him drink." When the great govern- 
ment of the United States was sending its soldiers 
into the field without adequate provision for them in 
case of sickness, Padre Antonio Millon gave his time, 
his care, and his thought to nursing, feeding, and 
caring for the sick soldiers of the United States 
army. 

Among those to whom this good man ministered 
was a soldier of the Nineteenth Infantry. For a 
week the soldier lay at the point of death, faithfully 
nursed and tended by the good priest. But the case 
was hopeless. During his illness, the battalion to 
which the soldier was attached had moved forward 
to Utuado. Authority was obtained, by the army 
telegraph line, from the commanding officer, for the 
burial of the dead man in Adjuntas. All suitable ar- 
rangements were made by the padre, and the soldier 
was laid to rest under the shadow of the Porto Rican 
hills. I reached Adjuntas on the day of the burial, 
and learned of the incident soon after my arrival. 

Late in the afternoon I had the pleasure of meeting 
Padre Millon. He came to my hotel to ask me to at- 
tend, as a representative of the country to which the 
dead soldier had belonged, a mass service at the lit- 
tle church in the village. The soldier had not been 



76 THE PORTO EICO OF TO-DAY 

of the Catholic faith, but the padre put away all 
questions of nation and creed, and saw only a soul. 
Feeling that all possible recognition of the good 
priest's kindly service and broad charity was none 
too much for Americans to show, I spoke to Captain 
Jackson, the commanding officer of a company of the 
Sixth Massachusetts, then doing provost guard duty 
in Adjuntas, and to Captain Brown of the First Illi- 
nois, who arrived the same day with a little group of 
the Provisional Engineer Corps, on their way from 
Utuado to Ponce. 

Both of these gentlemen fully appreciated the situ- 
ation, and at seven o'clock on the following morning 
every man of their respective commands not detailed 
for routine duty, was in the lines which were drawn 
up inside the church. Some sixty soldiers were thus 
present, with such observance of military form as 
was possible under the circumstances. At the close 
of the service the provost guard returned to its quar- 
ters, the engineers marched away on their long 
tramp to Ponce, and the priest took up his daily 
round of parish duties. All honor to the good padre 
with the broad badge of the Spanish Ked Cross So- 
ciety on the shoulder of his priestly cassock. 

Adjuntas has stores. It has many of them. From 
all appearances the majority of them either carry a 
stock of liquor as an adjunct to a stock of miscel- 



INTO THE COFFEE DISTEICT 77 

laneous mercliandise, or a stock of miscellaneous 
merchandise as an adjunct to a bar-room. I was told 
that there were no restrictions there upon the sale of 
liquor, and I could see no evidence of any. Yet I 
saw no intoxication. Almost every one drinks wine 
and native rum, and occasionally there is a disturb- 
ance in which the omnipresent machete plays its 
little part. The women smoke both cigarettes and 
cigars. Occasionally one meets a woman, evidently 
of the poorer classes, sauntering along the street, 
puffing a full-grown cigar. Sitting in my room in 
Adjuntas I could look from my window into the rear 
yard of the hotel, and see a dark-skinned, though not 
black, woman, washing the dishes from the dinner- 
table. The dish-washing did not seem to be much of 
a treat, but she surely enjoyed the cigar from which 
she extracted such a volume of smoke. Her assistant, 
a smaller and lighter-skinned damsel, was also smok- 
ing. Ladies of higher social grade are a bit more 
shy about their public performances on the cigar. 

The attractiveness of Adjuntas lies more in its sur- 
roundings than in its streets or its houses. The steep 
hills, wild and many folded, rise sharply on all sides, 
rich with color and verdure. A short walk from the 
hotel took one into the heart of it all, and away from 
" wars and rumors of wars " ; from muddy camps and 
all their turmoil. 



YI 

A NIGHT IN THE SADDLE 

Correspondents on the Firing-line— An Excited Chief of Police — 
Beyond the Outposts— A Search for Willing' Prisoners — A Blind 
Trail — A Spaniard's Hospitality — Midnight Encounters— Friends 
or Foes— Unwilling Rough Riders — A Striking Picture — The 
Capture—" Too Near " Home. 

The Porto Eican campaign was decidedly lacking 
in opportunities for newspaper correspondents to as- 
certain the measure of tlieir resources in the matter 
of personal heroism. During the days which fol- 
lowed the occupation of Ponce, a few trifling engage- 
ments took place in the immediate vicinity of the 
city. The *' firing-line " was reached by a pleasant 
drive over an admirable road which traversed a re- 
gion full of delight and interest to the nature-lover. 
These engagements were duly attended by a few cor- 
respondents, and there is no doubt that all main- 
tained a due and proper degree of placidity and se- 
renity under the ordeal of facing bullets which were 
flying principally in directions other than that of 
their particular position. One or two did hear the 
whistle of Mauser bullets. 



A NIGHT IIT THE SADDLE ^9 

One venturesome spirit bought a horse and rode 
out gallantly with the purpose of entering San Juan 
at a time when the enterprise presented a somewhat 
doubtful outcome. He returned confessing, very hon- 
estly, that he got " rattled " when within a few miles 
of the city. He would really have been far more 
safe in entering it than in riding back over the 
mountains. Aside from the risk of danger to life and 
limb which lay in carriage journeys over various 
Porto Eican highways, my own opportunities for 
courting death or capture at the hands of the enemy 
were limited to a nocturnal expedition beyond our 
outposts, for the purpose of assisting in bringing 
in some Spanish prisoners who were anxious to be 
captured. They stood in greater fear of their com- 
patriots than of their nominal enemies. 

At the time of the signing of the Protocol, General 
Garrettson's brigade was on its way across the island 
to Arecibo. A battalion of the Nineteenth Regulars 
occupied Utuado and the Sixth Massachusetts and 
Sixth Illinois were in camp at Adjuntas, some ten 
miles farther south. I had left Ponce the day before 
with the intention of going across the country to 
Arecibo, where I purposed taking the train for San 
Juan. My route took me through the territory occu- 
pied by this brigade, which formed the expedition 
commanded by General Guy Y. Henry. The news 



80 THE PORTO RICO OF TO-DAY 

of the signing of the Protocol reached me at Adjun- 
tas, and introduced an element of uncertainty regard- 
ing the status of Americans within the Spanish lines, 
and the right of even American civilians to cross 
the frontier. I decided to remain at Adjuntas until 
I could obtain fuller information, deeming it wise to 
risk no interference wdth the work I was doing, for 
no greater prospective equivalent than the possibility 
of a sensational story of a few days of detention in a 
Spanish prison. 

Just before noon of my second day in Adjuntas, 
my friend Captain Johnston, of the Sixteenth United 
States Infantry, then serving as quartermaster on the 
staff of General Henry, came to my room in the little 
hotel where I was staying, to invite me to accompany 
him on an excursion into the country toward Lares, 
a region that was still in possession of the Spanish 
forces. It had been reported to the local chief of 
police that some eighteen or twenty men, voluntdrios 
who had evaded service, and deserters from the 
Spanish army, were at a plantation three or four 
miles beyond the city. They wished to come in 
but feared the possible violence of the people, and 
therefore desired an armed escort to protect them. 
The chief was greatly excited. He referred the 
matter to Captain Johnston, who decided to give 
it his personal attention. The details were rather 




u 



A NIGHT 11^ THE SADDLE 81 

vague, and the promise of excitement was rather 
limited. 

But the expedition offered at least a pleasant ride 
into the country, and the possibility of a novel ex- 
perience. I was quite ready to accept the invitation. 
We ordered an early lunch, and were in the saddle 
soon after noon. It was not a regular military affair. 
Our party consisted of the captain and myself, an 
orderly, an interpreter, the chief of police, and ten of 
his men. The captain was mounted on a big chest- 
nut horse, and the orderly rode a remarkably long- 
legged army mule. The rest of us looked as impos- 
ing as we could on the little native horses, whose 
height seldom exceeds twelve to thirteen hands. 
The police were armed with the old-fashioned Rem- 
ington rifle, with swords, and with pistols if they 
possessed them. The orderly carried the Krag-Jor- 
gensen rifle of our regular army. The captain and 
I carried 38-calibre Colts of the latest army pattern, 
and the interpreter carried an umbrella. 

A ride of a mile or two beyond the city, over a 
fairly good road which wound through coffee planta- 
tions and banana groves, brought us to the border of 
a little stream. Upon its bank stood an American 
soldier. Near him there floated, from the top of a 
rude pole, a bit of white cloth. His position marked 
the boundary of the American occupation, and the 



82 THE PORTO EICO OF TO-DAY 

bit of white linen at the end of the pole was the flag 
of truce, which indicated, for a time at least, peace 
between the warring nations. On the other side of 
the stream we were on Spanish soil. We had started 
on a basis of a short ride of three or four miles, but 
the farther we rode the less our little chief of police 
seemed to know about his destination. " La casa " 
— the house, became " Una casa " — a house. The sun 
was broiling hot, and the road became more and 
more rough and uneven the farther we went. 

At four miles out "a house" was still somewhere 
beyond. Five miles brought us no certainty. We 
interviewed householders and such travellers as we 
met. The willing prisoners of the conquering nation 
might be at any one of a haK dozen places, but all 
were ** mas odelante " — farther on. At about the 
sixth mile, Johnston and I consulted. We cross-ex- 
amined the little chief. He knew nothing. He only 
felt sure that the object of our search was " farther 
on." We decided to push forward. There was no 
way of telling what might happen. The message to 
the police might be wholly correct except for an error 
in point of distance. It might be wholly false. It 
might even be a trap with mischief in it. We rode 
on. Our police escort was beginning to lag a little. 
Two or three times we had to wait for them, and 
once or twice Johnston used the imperative in telling 



A NIGHT IN THE SADDLE 83 

tlie chief to order his men to " close up." The idea 
grew upon us that they did not quite like the job. 
They were not stalwart six-footers — these police. 
That sort does not grow there. I doubt if any one 
of them weighed a hundred and twenty pounds, and a 
diet of plantains, beans, and rice does not make men 
of brawn and muscle. 

At four o'clock we had covered a little more than 
eight miles. At that point we came to a large and 
most comfortable-looking mansion which proved to 
be the residence of one Senor Antonio Mayol, a pros- 
perous coffee planter. We dismounted to rest in the 
shade of his large coffee-house, and were soon sur- 
rounded by a numerous company of the people of 
the plantation. For a few moments \ve were in some 
doubt of their attitude toward us. The little chief 
whispered " Espanol." That was true. Sen or Maj'ol 
was of Spanish birth, and was presumably loyal to 
his country. But whatever the Spanish official may 
be as a governor of colonies, the Spanish private 
citizen has but one fault as a host. He overdoes 
things in the matter of hospitality. His guest must 
eat more than he ought, drink more than he wants, 
and accept courtesies until they become little short 
of oppressive. Of this type was our host, who soon 
bustled his way through the group of spectators. 
His cordial welcome was hardly over before Juan 



84 THE POKTO EICO OF TO-DAY 

and Jose and Pedro were sent scurrying away to re- 
turn in an incredibly short time with refreshments 
for our party. 

Senor Mayol assumed that we had come to stay 
with him and gave orders for the unsaddling of our 
horses. After a little time and difficulty we were able 
to make him understand our errand, and from him we 
received the first information we had been able to 
obtain, which was even approximately accurate. Our 
vague party of prisoners seemed likely to take on a 
tangible form at a farm-house five miles beyond, and 
on the other side of the mountain. The broad veranda 
of Senor Mayol's house looked very attractive, and the 
hot mountain-side looked very hot and very steep. 
It was suggested that as the police had got us into 
the scrape, the police should get us out. Captain 
Johnston, the interpreter, the orderly, and the writer, 
would rest at Senor MayoFs. The police should pro- 
ceed and bring the prisoners to us, instead of taking 
us to the prisoners. The chief demurred, but John- 
ston is tall and has square shoulders and a deter- 
mined expression. The police moved on, with posi- 
tive instructions to be back before seven o'clock at 
the latest. 

We spent the intervening hours most pleasantly as 
Senor Mayol's guests. He set forth an over-abun- 
daut dinner, showed us his estate, his gardens, and 



A NIGHT IN THE SADDLE 85 

his mills. Neither war nor politics came into our 
conversation, and those few hours have in them noth- 
ing save kindly thoughts and pleasant memories. 
Darkness came as we smoked an after-dinner cigar 
on the cool veranda, but the police did not come. 
Seven, and the half past, came without bringing them, 
and we began to speculate concerning their where- 
abouts and their experience. Had they deserted us ? 
Were they in trouble ? As it stood, we could not get 
back to Adjuntas before midnight at the best, and 
we wanted to get back. 

Shortly before eight o'clock the son of our host, a 
fine young fellow of twenty or so, volunteered to ride 
up the road for any news he might be able to pick up. 
He had been gone about twenty minutes when the 
sound of rapid hoof-beats announced that somebody 
was coming up in a hurry. It proved to be young 
Mayol, trembling with excitement. "We learned that 
he had been " held up " and threatened with a beat- 
ing at a place about a mile and a half from his home. 
He was the son of a Spaniard and his assailants 
were Porto Kicans who hated him because of his 
race. He had got away and had sent his horse home- 
ward at top speed. The incident determined our 
movements. We sent a " hurry call " to the stable 
for our horses, resumed the weapons that we had 
laid aside, and said " Adios " to our kindly host. Our 



86 THE PORTO EICO OF TO-DAY 

purpose was to find the assailants of young Mayol if 
we could do so, and then to hunt up our missing 
police. Three or four of the farm people joined us 
with their machetes tucked under their arms, ready for 
use if the occasion arose. Young Mayol accompanied 
us to identify the chaps if we came across them. Of 
course they were not to be found. Ten or a dozen 
horsemen give sufficient notice of their approach to 
enable any who wish to do so, to avoid a meeting by 
escaping into the darkness. 

"We came to a house where quite a group of men 
had assembled, and stopped to question them. In 
the dim light I could see Johnston's hand swing 
around to his hip, just as mine did. I saw the bar- 
rel of the orderly's Krag-Jorgensen drop into the 
hollow of his left arm, and I could imagine just 
where his right hand was. But the interview was 
peaceable enough, and we learned nothing, save that 
the men we wanted had been there and had gone 
away, and that nothing had been seen of our police 
since their passing on their way out. We also learned 
that there was another route, which it then seemed 
probable that the police might have taken for their 
return. We decided to investigate the police question 
along the line of this other route. We reduced our 
party to the original group, except that we took one 
of Senor Mayol's people as a pilot over the hills. 



A NIGHT IN THE SADDLE 87 

Then followed wliat seemed an endless ride 
through the darkness. The main road had been too 
rough for comfortable riding through the gloom. 
Our new way was not even a road. It was but one 
of the many bridle-paths over the mountains which 
the natives use for getting about from plantation to 
plantation. I can give no description of it, except 
that at times we were in inky blackness under the 
dense foliage, obliged to call to each other in order 
to keep together, while at other times we were in 
open fields on the hill-tops with the bright stars to 
give us light, and the cool moisture-laden night air 
to give us rheumatism and influenza. I know that 
we forded rocky torrents on the mountain-side, that 
we rode up places that seemed like walls, and that we 
rode down places that seemed like precipices. Our 
horses stumbled and fell. My guiding star through- 
out the whole was that orderly sergeant on the tall 
mule. In the narrow way we could only ride in 
single file, and the mental photograph of that fig- 
ure riding before me, vaguely outlined in the star- 
light of that night in August, will never be wholly 
obliterated. 

Hour after hour we rode up, down, and around 
those hills. Ten o'clock and eleven o'clock passed, 
and there was no sign of our lost police. Once, as 
we turned a sharp corner, we came suddenly upon 



88 THE PORTO RICO OF TO-DAY 

two white-garbed horsemen. Who they were, or 
how raany might be behind them, we could not see. 
Again I saw that Krag-Jorgensen drop across the 
sergeant's arm. Upon comparing notes with John- 
ston afterward, I learned that his six-shooter was in 
his hand. I know that mine was ready. But the two 
white-clad apparitions proved to be the whole of the 
unknown force, and they appeared to be more fright- 
ened than we were, for they gave an indistinct an- 
swer to our challenge, and pushed their horses out 
of the path and into a brushy field to avoid us. We 
set them down, with probable correctness, as a 
couple of runaway voluntdrios making their way to 
their homes somewhere in the vicinity, and not at 
all anxious to meet anything in uniform, either 
Spanish or American. 

Just before midnight, after losing oui- way two or 
three times and being forced to retrace our steps to 
find our proper path, we came upon a large and 
rambling set of farm-buildings, fronted by a fenced 
enclosui^e, with a high gateway. By the dim light 
of a suspended candle-lantern we could see the mov- 
ing forms of a score of men and a long row of pick- 
eted horses. They might be our missing police. 
They might be a Spanish outpost. I think that if it 
had been the w^hole of the Spanish army Johnston 
would have challenged it just the same. We rode 



A XIGHT IN THE SADDLE 89 

up to tlie gate with the Ki'ag-Jorgensen in the hol- 
low of the sergeant's arm, and a couple of long-bar- 
relled Colt's revolvers ready for instant use. Again 
our preparation was needless. We had only come 
upon a country pack-train preparing for an early 
morning start to the distant city. We rode into the 
yard, and all dismounted except the sergeant on the 
tall mule. He kept his perch like a sentinel on a 
high tower. While we were questioning the people 
regarding the things we wished to know, the sergeant 
called the captain's attention and announced the ap- 
proach of a squad of horsemen. I shoved my bridle 
into the hand of the nearest native and ranged up 
alongside the captain, facing the gate. I saw some- 
thing white in his hand. His revolver Avas an ivory- 
handled weapon, a trophy of his skill as a pistol 
shot. Behind us loomed the sergeant on the tall 
mule, equally ready with the pair in front of him to 
shoot if necessary. Again the pistols went back to 
their holsters. The new arrivals were our missing 
policemen with their prisoners. 

It was a weird picture that was sho"wn there in 
that tropic midnight. The little squad of policemen 
on their jaded horses, the group of natives in their 
scant but picturesque raiment, towering over all the 
sergeant on the tall mule, the whole thrown into 
shadowy relief by the starlight, with bits of high 



90 THE PORTO EICO OF TO-DAY 

light showing sharply in the rays of the lantern. All 
was black and white in bustling movement around a 
centre in which stood the captain and his interpreter 
listening to the story told by the chief of police. 
Briefly he had at last found his men and was bring- 
ing them in. There they were — six of them. One 
had a pass from an American army officer that would 
have taken him anywhere, unquestioned, within the 
American lines. For the other ^yb, it is seldom that 
one sees men who are quite as delighted at becoming 
prisoners of war as was that quintette. They were 
unarmed, but in the house from which one of them 
was taken, the police had found two shot-guns which 
would seriously imperil the life of anyone who might 
attempt to use them, and an old-fashioned revolver 
of French make, using the pin-fire cartridge. The 
revolver disappeared in the crowd in the darkness. 
I think that Johnston had an idea where it was. I 
had something more than an idea. I was wearing 
one of those shooting-coats made of light duck and 
fitted with very large pockets. I found the pistol in 
one of those pockets the next morning. It must 
have fallen in somehow as it passed from hand to 
hand. 

That part of our work was done. We had found 
our police and received our prisoners. We sent them 
on their way to the city, appointing a rendezvous at 



A NIGHT IN THE SADDLE 91 

a certain spot en route, for seven o'clock in the morn- 
ing. Then we swung our tired legs over the backs 
of our tired horses, to ride for another two hours to 
a point where we could catch an hour or two of sleep 
and join the police at the appointed time and place, 
I shall remember that two hours' ride as long as I 
live. After we had ridden until it seemed as if it 
must be very near the morning, I called to the inter- 
preter to ask how much farther we had to go. His 
English was not of the best and he evidently con- 
founded the meaning of the words " too "and "very," 
for he replied that the place was " too near." I 
heard a grunt from the sergeant and something about 
the place as not being "too near" by some kind of a 
sight. The qualifying adjective was lost by an op- 
portune stumble on the part of the tall mule. Kisk- 
ing the character of the missing adjective I sung out 
a cordial endorsement of the sergeant's reply. At 
last the barking of the dogs in the valley far below 
us, and a dim gray spot which could be nothing 
other than a white building, gave us the welcome 
sign that our journey was over. It had consumed 
more than six hours since our second start. Our 
tired brutes picked their way down the rough path 
and brought us to the ample court-yard of a large 
coffee estate. I have a vague idea of lights, greet- 
ings, a cup of native coffee, a long passageway 



92 THE PORTO RICO OF TO-DAY 

leading to a bedroom, and then — " Sleep, sore labor's 
bath." 

The whole experience was one of potential, rather 
than actual adventure, but, as I have said, the Porto 
Eican campaign was not rich in opportunities for 
real adventures, particularly for newspaper corre- 
spondents. 



VII 

TYPICAL TOWNS AND VILLAGES 

" Shucks and Shacks "—Picturesque San German—" Hotel the Strugf- 
gle " — A Restless Night— A Native Description of the Engagement 
at Hormigueros — Two Humble Heroes— A Notable Shrine— Beau- 
tiful Mayaguez— A Miniature Street-car Line— Public Buildings 
— The Casino 

Among the Porto Eican towns from which we shall 
probably be looking for election returns within a few 
years, are Sabana Grande, San German, and Hormi- 
gueros. All are in the southwestern part of the isl- 
and. San German is the largest of the three, and 
lies midway between the other two, along the road 
from Ponce to Mayaguez. Yauco lies to the east- 
ward of them, about ten miles from Sabana Granda 

If one turns the "b" in Sabana into Castilian, as 
it is in Habana, he at once gets the clew to the mean- 
ing of the name ; and it readily resolves itself into 
"the great," or "large savannah," and "Sabana 
Grande " describes itself as a broad, level, and fer- 
tile plain. It is true that the place is not altogether 
as level as a barn floor, but beyond the low range of 

hills to the westward of Yauco, the traveller enters a 

93 



94 THE PORTO RICO OF TO-DAY 

broad and extensive valley, which occupies a large 
portion of southwestern Porto Eico. It is a land of 
corn and sugar-cane. The land is evidently of ex- 
ceeding fertility, and in spite of years of cultivation 
without fertilizers it still yields abundant harvests, 
and might readily be made even more prolific. The 
town itself is not much to boast of. There is the 
usual iglesia, or church, fronting the usual open 
square. There is a suitable proportion of the very 
dirty-looking little stores which are common to such 
villages. There is the same general air of decay 
which characterizes the average Porto Eican village. 
But Sabana Grande seems to possess an unusual 
number of buildings of the genus " shack." It ap- 
pears to be composed mainly of long rows of rough 
and badly built shanties, which give the greater por- 
tion of the town the appearance of being utterl}^ 
poverty stricken. Yet the people of the place do 
not look any more dirty, ragged, or hungry than a 
great many of their compatriots in other places. 

Before many of the houses, immediately beside 
the roadway, mats were spread upon which corn, 
shelled from the cob, was drying in the sun. The 
whole place seemed reeking with corn. Bushels of 
it were thus drying in the bright sunshine. It hung 
in great bunches from the rafters inside the little 
dwellings, and lay in piles upon the porches. In 



TYPICAL TOWNS AND VILLAGES 95 

the fields it stood, some of young growth and some 
of ripened ears ready for gathering. Apparently, 
one might have boiled green corn upon his table, if 
he so wished, every day of the year in Porto Eico. 
It would mean but a little calculation of the time of 
planting. One of the leading citizens, at w^hose 
house I stopped in passing, gave me oranges and 
pomegranates picked from the trees as we walked 
through his garden. He showed me his young cof- 
fee-shrubs, growing in the shade of the bananas. It 
appears that it will not do to expose the coffee-plant 
to the rays of the sun. It is, therefore, planted and 
grown under the shade of the banana or some tree 
whose growth outstrips the coffee in rapidity, and 
under whose leaves the more sensitive shrub finds 
the shelter which it needs. 

San German is the next town on the route. It 
appears to be bisected by Luna Street, with the 
larger and more important portion of the place on 
the north side. It is an old town, claiming a foun* 
dation by Captain Miguel Toro, in 1511. The ap- 
pearance of some portions of it would indicate an es- 
tablishment of even more ancient date. A photog- 
rapher who possessed an acute sense of the artistic 
could spend a week or two there very profitably, 
though perhaps not very comfortably. The cathe- 
dral, with its long flight of steps, almost as wide as 



96 THE POETO RICO OF TO-DAT 

tlie front of the edifice, would make a good subject, 
and some of the picturesque people and children 
could be posed on those stairs and some delightful 
studies be obtained. I noticed an old ruin, perhaps 
a church of an earlier date. With proper lights and 
shadows, it would yield some capital bits for the 
camera. So, too, with the town itself. Its narrow 
streets should yield an abundant harvest for the 
man with a good tripod instrument. But it is not a 
place for snap-shots. Few places are, if one wants 
pictures. The man who only wants a photograph 
can get it anywhere. In San German there are old 
iron fences of considerable height and elaboration of 
design, with massive stone pillars, enclosing tangled 
growths of tropical plants. There are plant- covered 
balconies on houses of the better class, and artistic 
dilapidation and decay among the houses of the 
older portions of the place. 

Of all the dingy and unattractive hotels which I 
experienced on the island, the San German affair 
was the worst. But there was a picture in the flight 
of stone steps which led into it and opened at their 
upper end upon a sort of arched semi-inclosure, 
through which, from the stairs, the near-by hills 
stood in beautiful relief. The hotel was of the kind 
which one remembers, though not for its delights. 
From the comer of the building hung the signboard. 




DQ 



TYPICAL TOWNS AND VILLAGES 97 

'* Fonda la Lucha." " Hotel the Straggle," would be 
a literal translation of the name of this hostelry. 
" Lucha " also means " strife," The special applica- 
tion of the name to the hotel is left to the ideas of 
the traveller. Possibly the proprietor struggles to 
make a living out of the place. Possibly the mean- 
ing touches the guest more closely than it does the 
host. He was a clever man, mine host, pleasant and 
obliging, but in his hotel I strove with ants on the 
dining -table, and struggled with fleas in my bedroom. 
I should hardly go as far as did Kichard III., and 
decline to "pass another such a night, though 'twere 
to win a world of happy days," but I am not hungry 
to duplicate it. 

I had every reason to believe that I was the only 
American in the city that night. I had no idea of 
the nationality or of the political opinions of my host. 
I presume that he was all right. But conversations 
which I overheard, and the appearance of one or two 
individuals who dropped in after nightfall, were not 
wholly reassuring, and I judged it wise to put my 
revolver under my pillow. What with the fleas and 
the feeling that I had best not sleep too soundly, the 
amount of sleep which I did not get that night would 
have well rested any man who was even more tired 
than I was. But it was cheap amusement. For my 
dinner, with a bottle of undrinkable wine, my lodg- 



98 THE PORTO EICO OF TO-DAY 

ing, and my breakfast, I paid a sum equal to about 
seventy-five cents in American money. 

Hormigueros is not much of a town. Its chief 
interest to Americans just now is the fact that its 
vicinity gives the name to one of those little engage- 
ments which, in this rather opera-bouffe campaign, 
we denominate as "battles." There was a bit of 
sharp infantry firing, with a slight casualty list for 
both sides. But it was hardly even a skirmish fight. 
My driver illustrated the scene with great animation 
as I passed it on my way. His finger pointed out 
the line of march of the ** Americanos.'' The index 
was suspended to indicate a certain spot. A vigor- 
ous and staccato "Pom-m-m," meant that the artil- 
lery had halted at that point and tried a shot or two. 
Then the word " Espanol," an animated rotary 
motion of the hands, and the pointing out of the 
hills behind the village, made sufficiently clear the 
manner in which the valiant Spaniards had tumbled 
over each other in their efforts to get away behind 
the summits which formed the picturesque back- 
ground of the village of Hormigueros. It was not 
much of a fight, but it put the American flag in the 
place of a Spanish handera over another Porto Eican 
town. 

The Spaniards might have stopped the Americans 
twenty times within the next few miles. They might 



TYPICAL TOWNS AND VILLAGES 99 

have decimated the American ranks by guerilla fir- 
ing. They might have played the mischief with us, 
generally. But they appear to have been utterly 
"rattled." They would seem to have been terror- 
stricken by the appearance of an army which fired 
as it moved forward, and always moved forward. 
It was here that there occurred one of those little 
exhibitions of individual courage which are of great- 
er frequency in the ranks of our regular army than 
is generally known to the public. Captain Hoyt's 
company of the Eleventh Eegular Infantry was in 
advance. The Spanish troop were hunting cover 
and falling back with great agility. The side of the 
little hill which lay before the American lines was a 
cleared field. Its top was wooded and formed an 
admirable cover. The wood might be filled with 
Mausers. Captain Hoyt hesitated about sending his 
men across the clearing. Two men stepped from the 
ranks. One of them had been in the army for some 
years and had seen service on the plains. The other 
was of recent enlistment. With as much coolness as 
they would have shown in following a deer track, the 
two started up the slope at a trot, and plunged into 
the thicket. They soon reappeared with a cry to 
"come along." Then they disappeared, to repeat 
the process on the next hill. Who were they ? I do 
not know. The army is full of such men. We hear 



100 THE POETO EICO OF TO-DAY 

very little about them. It is true that they might 
be well advertised as The Heroes of Hormigueros, 
because they did in a little way what Dewey and 
Hobson did on a larger scale. It is the way of the 
army and navy, that is all. All that is needed is the 
opportunity. Had it been necessary or desirable, 
the whole command would have gone as the two men 
did. 

The little hillside village of Hormigueros possesses, 
in its church edifice, a venerated and widely known 
point of interest. Overlooking the village and the 
surrounding valley, stands the chui'ch of Our Lady 
of Monserrate. It is a holy spot, and has for 
many years been the gathering pomt for pilgrims 
who come, not only from other parts of the island, 
but, as well, from many of the adjacent islands 
of the Antilles. Its special distinction as a point for 
pilgrims arises from a glory borrowed from the cele- 
brated Benedictine monastery in Spain, standing a 
few miles from the city of Barcelona. The Spanish 
monastery draws tens of thousands of pilgrims to its 
doors every year because of its possession of a statue 
said to have been carved by the apostle Luke, and 
brought to Barcelona, in the year 50, by the apostle 
Peter. The Hormigueros sanctuary would seem to 
stand as the local representative of the shrine whose 
name it bears. It is a picturesque structure, stand- 



•*? 




/ 



w^M 




1 



TYPICAL TOWNS AND VILLAGES 101 

ing on the crest of a hill and reached by a long flight 
of steps. From the fact that my driver pointed it 
out to me as an army barracks, I infer that it was oc- 
cupied by the Spanish troops before the arrival of 
the American army. 

The pamphlet, issued by the government for the 
use of army officers, and entitled " Military Notes on 
Porto Rico," contains, among some facts, a consider- 
able assortment of misinformation. Its maps and its 
statements are chiefly drawn from Spanish sources, 
and display the general inaccuracy of detail which 
marks the bulk of Spanish productions of that char- 
acter. This pamphlet gives, under the head of 
"Mayaguez," the following: "A city of 11,615 in- 
habitants, with a jurisdiction numbering 28,026. The 
majority of the population is white. It is the third 
city in importance in the island, being situated in the 
west part facing what is generally known as * Mona 
Channel.' It is a seaport of considerable commerce, 
and is one hundred and two miles from San Juan." 
A part of this is true, with limitations. Whatever 
else may be said for it, there is no question that 
Mayaguez is a beautifully situated city, and that it is 
well worth a visit. Its general architecture is, natur- 
ally, Spanish in its character. The greater number 
of its buildings are of stone or brick, and are one 
story in height. The wide portico extending across 



102 THE POETO KICO OF TO-DAY 

the front of the house, and raised from three to five 
feet above the sidewalk upon which it immediately 
borders, is the common fashion for the many well- 
built and well-painted residences which abound on 
the principal streets. Open doors and gates give 
views of pleasant interiors, and of court-yards filled 
with flowers and plants. 

The streets are much wider than the usual thor- 
oughfares of such places. Through some of them 
there runs a quaint little tram-road with a gauge of 
perhaps twenty-seven to thirty inches. The cars, 
which run at quite frequent intervals, are drawn by 
two of the little things commonly known as cabal- 
loSy which translates into "horses." This is a re- 
flection on the horse family. These cars cannot ex- 
ceed twelve feet in length, and seem hardly that. 
Their width may be five and a half feet. They con- 
sist of a platform with a roof from which hang red 
and white striped curtains for protection against the 
sun and rain. There are two double seats, dos-a-doSy 
running across the car. The driver appears to divide 
his attention between his horses and any Americans 
who may ride wdth him. 

The conductor is provided with a small pouch sus- 
pended by a strap over his shoulder. This is a re- 
ceptacle for the fares collected, and the repository for 
a small book from which he tears a ticket for each 



TYPICAL TOWNS AND VILLAGES 103 

fare. He tears the ticket half in two as an indica- 
tion that it has been used, and presents the mutilated 
scrap to the passenger as a receipt for money paid. 
This ticket, which is about two and one half inches 
square, has a central circular imprint, of about the 
diameter of a silver half-dollar, which reads, Socie- 
dad Anonima, Tranvia de Mayaguez. Across the top 
it reads, Conservese durante el trayectOy and across 
the bottom, E inutilicese despues. A random trans- 
lation of this would turn it into " Hang on to this 
during your passage. It is good for nothing after- 
wards." I was informed that the street railway 
system was not remunerative, owing to the fact that 
affairs were left entirely to a superintendent whom 
nobody watched. It is now proposed to institute a 
reform and make a s^ot for some dividends. To 
that end, notices are liow posted in the cars, on the 
under side of the roof, where one stands a fair 
chance of breaking his neck while reading them. 
They are to the effect that on and after the 28 de 
Agosto de 1898, the fare will be increased from three 
cents to five, Porto Rico money. 

The city proper is built on a rounded knoll, whose 
dome rises a hundred feet or so above the level of 
the beautiful bay, whose waters break gently upon 
its western base. The knoll is crowned by the cen- 
tral square. In the middle of this square stands a 



104 THE PORTO EICO OF TO-DAY 

tall statue of Christopher Columbus, facing toward 
the sea to the westward. There is some conflict be- 
tween different cities, of which Mayaguez is one, for 
the honor of being the point at which Christopher 
Columbus made his first landing on the island upon 
the occasion of his second voyage to the islands of 
the west. San Juan makes a claim which does not 
appear to be very well founded, and has erected a 
handsome monument to the memory of the distin- 
guished navigator in one of its principal squares. 
Aguadilla, a pretty little city on the western coast, 
also presents a claim and has placed an imposing 
shaft, almost upon the very edge of the water, at the 
point which the citizens assert to have been the spot 
where the great man first set his foot on the island of 
Boriquen. Mayaguez also makes its claim for the 
distinction of being Christopher's first landing-place. 
In front of the monument is a somewhat imposing 
city hall, while behind it is a rather fine old cathe- 
dral, said to have been erected, I believe, in 1760. 
Westward, on the slope of the hill, stand the capa- 
cious infantry barracks, erected in 1848, and of suffi- 
cient size to accommodate nearly the whole of an 
American regiment. The city boasts of an elaborately 
designed theatre, a commodious market-house, a hos- 
pital, two asylums, a public library, electric lights, 
and an ice factory. From a Spanish- American stand- 



TYPICAL TOWNS AND VILLAGES 105 

point, the city is quite modern and progressive. The 
social element finds a centre in the casinos, of which 
there are two. We should call them club - houses, 
although certain features are introduced not wholly 
common in American clubs. 

I visited the one maintained and frequented by the 
Porto Eican element. The other, of Spanish tenden- 
cies and patronage, I did not see. My host for the 
day, a Porto Eican who was full of enthusiasm for 
the " American cause," informed me that he had 
never set foot in the Spanish club. He said that it 
was chiefly composed of men who hardly knew how 
to wear a collar, who did not know at all how to 
wear a coat, and who smelled of codfish. The Porto 
Eican casino occupies a palatial private residence 
rented for its purpose. At the head of the staircase 
is a large hall with chairs and a small grand piano. 
The spacious apartment occupying the entire front of 
the second story is designed for theatricals, and is 
equipped with a very complete little stage at one end. 
In the body and rear of the building are card-rooms, 
a library, a billiard-room, and a kitchen. Mayaguez 
evidently pays some attention to the business of en- 
joying itself. 

The style of its residences and the demeanor of 
the people indicate a large measure of refinement, 
and a society of cultivated people. At the foot of 



106 THE POETO EICO OF TO-DAY 

the hill, alongside the water, one finds the wholesale 
business of the place. The custom-house is a credit- 
able structure, and the warehouses are commodious 
and substantial. The harbor is not a particularly 
good one, though it probably could be made such. 
It is about three miles wide, and about a mile and 
a half from the shore to its entrance, across which 
there are dangerous shoals, requiring some caution 
on the part of sailing-masters. Vessels are unloaded 
by means of lighters, the usual way in Porto Eican 
harbors. The exports of the place are chiefly sugar 
and coffee, though a considerable quantity of fruit is 
also sent out. The coffee is mainly of two grades. 
The cheaper article finds its best market in Cuba, 
and the finer article, which ranks with the Javan prod- 
uct in quality and price, is almost entirely consumed 
by Europeans, who know good coffee when they get it. 
The American people do not seem to be very well 
acquainted with the excellences of Porto Eican coffee. 
The annual export of coffee from Mayaguez amounts 
to nearly 10,000 tons. The quantity of sugar ex- 
ported is also very large, as the place is the shipping 
port for an extensive section of sugar-raising country. 
At present the Mayaguez hotels are not to be 
highly recommended to American tourists, nor is the 
place itself readily accessible, except by means of di- 
rect steamship communication. Approaching from 



TYPICAL TOWNS AND VILLAGES 107 

either Ponce or San Juan, one has twenty-five or 
thirty miles, by either route, which must be covered 
by private conveyance, and the roads for the greater 
part of the way are simply atrocious. After having 
gone in by means of a carriage, I dreaded to go out 
again, as one dreads a visit to the dentist. Some 
day this will doubtless be changed, and beautiful 
Mayaguez, with its lovely bay in front of it, and its 
charming hills behind it, will be equipped with at- 
tractive and comfortable hotels. The few miles of 
well-made roads in its immediate vicinity are heavily 
shaded avenues, with a picture in every rod of them. 
There should be good boating and bathing in the 
bay. Mayaguez might easily be made an exceedingly 
popular winter-resort, and if a visitor could be estab- 
lished in a comfortable hotel, there are many places 
doing a thriving business as summer-resorts which 
would hardly be in the running with Mayaguez. 



vin 

FROM PONCE TO SAN JUAN 

A Model Highway— A Bicycle Trip Worth Taking— Island Villages— 
The Baths of Coamo — Good Luck for our Army — A Mountain 
Drive— Passing the Outposts— Cayey and Guayama— Nature's 
Bounty— System of Road Repairs— Porto Rican Road-houses. 

I SHOULD not know where to go in tlie United 
States to find a continuous hundred miles of highway 
to rival, in its general excellence, the road between 
Ponce and the capital of the island of Porto Eico. 
Were the road like the general run of the roads on 
the island, he who would essay the trip could safely 
be counted as either a brave or a reckless man. The 
line forms a part of a somewhat extensive system of 
military highways which were projected by the Span- 
ish Government and paid for by the islanders. Few 
of them were completed more than a few miles from 
the cities from which they started. This connecting 
thoroughfare between the two chief cities was re- 
garded, however, as of supreme importance, and was 
finished for its entire length, and a most creditable 

job was made of it. 

108 



FROM PONCE TO SAN JUAN 109 

Tlie guide-book of military misinformation about 
Porto Kico gives various figures as the distance be- 
tween Ponce and San Juan. It is placed at sixty- 
nine miles and at seventy miles. It is also given as 
"exactly 134 kilometres." The latter is doubtless 
correct, and it translates into near enough to a hun- 
dred miles to be set down as a *' century run." Al- 
though the road crosses the mountains at an altitude 
of nearly, if not quite, 3,500 feet, there is very little 
of it which could not be traversed on a bicycle. 
From the height of land, coming southward, a rider 
could make a continuous coast of six or eight miles 
without touching a pedal or dismounting for rough 
spots. To the north of the backbone there is more 
of level road, with sharper declivities, though there 
is little or nothing which could rightly be regarded 
as a steep hill either upon the northern or the south- 
ern slope. After leaving Ponce, the road rises, by 
an almost imperceptible incline, along and through 
the foot-hills. The scenery is much like that of all 
the other parts of the island through which I trav- 
elled. Hills and mountains are always in sight upon 
one side or the other, if not upon both sides. 

The road passes through the burned town of Goto 
Laurel, for the destruction of which sentences of 
rather dubious justice were pronounced against five 
men by the military commission which tried them 



110 THE POETO EICO OF TO-DAY 

for arson and pillage. It runs through the larger 
village of Juana Diaz, which is like all other towns 
of the island. There is the inevitable main street 
with its shambling structures at either end, improv- 
ing by degrees toward the middle, where there is the 
inevitable church facing the inevitable plaza. Every- 
where there is dirt and dilapidation. The streets 
are dirty and the stores are equally so. There is no 
air of neatness about either the towns or the people 
who inhabit them. Except that it is little more of a 
place, Coamo is like the others. The hotel dupli- 
cated previous experiences in other hotels. It was 
a dreary, barren, and cheerless place in which one 
got something to eat and a place in which to sleep. 

The town of Coamo is one of the oldest on the island. 
It was founded in 1640. Its special distinction to-day 
is its thermal baths, which make it a place of resort 
not only for the Porto Eicans but for people from 
many of the surrounding islands. It is not easy to 
say just what will be done with these baths under the 
new order of things. It is wholly probable that they 
will become more widely known, and find a very great 
increase in their patronage. Of the genuine merit of 
the water as a cure for gout, rheumatism, and various 
other complaints, there can be no doubt. A judicious 
exploitation of the place may lead to its establishment 
as a fashionable Mecca for gouty and rheumatic 




u 



FEOM PONCE TO SAN JUAN 111 

American pilgrims. There is no reason why it should 
not find such a destiny. The situation of the town is 
charming, and it is easily reached by a fine drive of 
a little more than twenty miles. 

Before the arrival of the Americans to disturb the 
social routine of the island people, the baths of Coamo 
ofiered no small attraction to its many guests in the 
facilities which it presented for winning or losing a 
few pesos, a year's income, or an entire foi*tune. Its 
reputation as a Porto Rican Monte Carlo rivalled its 
reputation as a Porto Rican Hot Springs. Gambling 
appears to have been one of the features of the resort, 
and many a visitor lost his money as well as his dis- 
ease. 

After leaving the town of Coamo, the road dips 
sharply down, by what is probably the steepest grade 
of the entire route from coast to coast, to a fine bridge 
which spans a modest little river. Then begins the 
gradual but continuous ascent to the top of the pass. 
This road was one of the routes by which it was pro- 
posed to reach the rear of San Juan for the assault 
upon that city. 

To the unmilitary observer it would seem wholly 
futile to attempt the passage at all in the face of an 
enemy. Probably it never was the purpose of the 
American commander to do more than to make an 
active demonstration along the direct line of march 



112 THE PORTO EICO OF TO-DAY 

while endeavoring to drive out the enemy by move- 
ments in flank and rear. But even that plan pre- 
sented a desperate problem, and had General Miles 
made a careful personal inspection of the ground over 
which his troops were to fight, it is quite possible 
that the whole outline of the campaign would have 
been either changed or greatly modified. The confi- 
dence of the Spanish commander in the strength of 
his position was wholly warranted. The road presents 
point after point of the greatest exposure, from which 
but a mere handful of men could attack effectively only 
for the few brief moments during which they could 
withstand or outlive the fire of the enemy ; flank 
movements could be made only by long and severe 
climbing of hill-sides standing at very steep angles. 
It is necessary to admit that the arrival of the notice 
of a cessation of hostilities may have meant our sal- 
vation from a sanguinary conflict, if not from a tempo- 
rary defeat. 

The winding of the road, as it bends in and out 
around the folds and ridges of the steep hill-sides, 
opens a series of ever-changing views in all directions. 
At one moment the traveller may be looking directly 
forward toward the top of the hill over which he 
climbs. A few minutes later his back may be to- 
ward his destination, while he finds himself facing 
directly down the valley out of which he is climbing, 



FROM PONCE TO SAN JUAN 113 

and looking upon the blue of the Caribbean Ocean in 
the distance as the background of a mountain picture. 
But I confess to a feeling of disappointment regard- 
ing the scenery. I had heard such tales of its mar- 
vellous beauty, its wild grandeur, and its overhanging 
cliffs, that I was led to expect more than I found. 
Beautiful it is, beyond denial, but I have seen scores 
of spots in our own White Mountains, the Allegha- 
nies, and the Blue Ridge, which seem to me to be far 
finer than anything seen along the journey across 
Porto Rico. 

On the occasion of my first trip across the island, 
the outposts of both armies were stationed at points 
near the crest of a hill, and within a short distance 
of each other. To go beyond our lines it was neces- 
sary to have a special pass from the military authori- 
ties. This was obtained at the head-quarters of the 
American forces, who were encamped just beyond 
Coamo. There, my companions and myself were re- 
ceived by General Ernst, the commanding officer, 
with that courtesy and kindliness which are so gen- 
erally characteristic of our officers of the regular 
army. Immediately upon our introduction of our- 
selves, and the statement of our plans and wishes, 
General Ernst telegraphed to General Brooks, the 
military commander of the island, afc San Juan, for 
instructions. After a surprisingly brief interval, a 



114 THE PORTO EICO OF TO-DAY 

favorable answer came back, and the hoped-for pass, 
signed by General Ernst, was in our possession. 
The road was opened to us to go outside the Ameri- 
can lines. Not far from the summit we came to the 
outpost of the Spanish lines, and were duly held up. 
Our pass allowed us to go through the American 
lines. Our further progress was a matter of courtesy 
on the part of the Spaniards. But they made less 
trouble for travellers, even for Americans, than did 
our own people. Yet the formalities of the American 
procedure, accomj)anied by the courtesy of the Amer- 
ican general, were vastly preferable to the grim scowl 
with which the Spanish captain permitted us to go 
on our way. But he was wholly excusable. It was 
hardly to be expected that he would fall on our necks 
and bid us welcome. It was enough that he let us go. 
From the top of the pass, northward, the character 
of the scenery changes quite noticeably. It is less 
I wild and rugged, and there are evidences of a more 
j general and more diversified cultivation of the soil. 
A short distance beyond the summit lies the town of 
Aibonito. The place itself belies its name as accu- 
rately as the surrounding hills and valleys support it. 
" Ah ! Beautiful ! " is the translation of the name ; 
but it is not a suitable description of the town itself. 
Yet it is a wholly characteristic Porto Eican town. 
Like the majority, it consists principally of a main 



FROM PONCE TO SAN JUAN 115 

street, a large church, with a plaza before it, a few 
central buildings of modest but dingy respectability, 
and a broad surrounding fringe of shacks and shan- 
ties. The principal difference between most of these 
larger Porto Eican towns lies in the fact that some 
are dirtier than others. 

The next point on the way is Cayey. It is a 
larger Aibonito, with fifty years of added dinginess 
because of its earlier settlement. The directory of 
the island states that Cayey is a place of cool and 
pleasant temperature, producing coffee and all kinds 
of cereals. The difference in temperature between 
this region and the low coast-land is certainly very 
marked. One is hardly warranted in making posi- 
tive statements regarding comparative temperatures 
unless supported by either a prolonged residence 
in the sections compared, or by the statistics of a 
weather bureau. But it was the common observation 
of those who crossed the island that the breezes which 
blew over the vicinity of Cayey brought a freshness 
and an invigoration which were not found elsewhere 
upon the island. There is, however, little doubt that 
the nights of the place share the general drawback of 
all the mountain area of Porto Eico. This lies in an 
excess of moisture, a cool dampness to which it is 
unwise and unsafe to expose one's self unduly. 

At Cayey the main road is joined by the branch 



116 THE POKTO RICO OF TO-DAY 

whicli runs soutliward to Guayama. This road 
crosses some of the highest hills of the island, and 
presents some of the grandest views and most beau- 
tiful scenery of the territory. The verdure is peren- 
nial, and the time of year at which one might visit 
the place would make practically no difference in the 
richness of the foliage, which is the main feature of 
any expedition for pleasure made through the island. 
In all directions along this road from Cayey to 
Guayama, as elsewhere in all parts of Porto Bico, 
is a broad panorama of hills, their sides and tops 
robed with the yellowish green of pasture lands, 
the pale green of banana plantations, and the deep, 
rich green of groves of mango, Indian laurel, and 
other woods. One of the glories of the island is to 
be seen during the summer months, when the tree 
which the natives call the Jiamhoyan is in blos- 
som. It is a large and spreading tree, bearing great 
clusters of flowers of a brilliant red color. It blos- 
soms profusely, and gives a strikingly gorgeous 
effect. The tree is quite common aloug the high- 
ways, many having been planted as border trees. 
While I failed to find the wealth of flora which I had 
anticipated, the color-lover will have no ground for 
dissatisfaction with the display which is offered 
along any of the Porto Rican roadways. 

Guayama is another town of some antiquity, hav- 







mm 






" '^- * > j&^^^M 






^"'^^^■Bfll^Bfi 






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■^ J 


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1 


L'- '-t.;^ 






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*w 




j|. 






^^^K^pij 




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The Military Road near Ponce. 



FEOM PONCE TO SAN JUAN 117 

ing been founded in 1736, though its settlement 
antedates that period. It is a coast town practically, 
but it has no harbor worthy of the name. It fronts 
upon an open roadstead which, though well sheltered 
from the north, is exposed to winds from the south 
and southeast, under which conditions the coast 
reefs make it a somewhat dangerous harbor. There 
is a better bay at the nearby village of Arroyo, 
which is the usual port of entry for Guayama. The 
American forces, under command of General Brooke, 
made their landing at Arroyo, and proceeded from 
there to Guayama. There is little of special interest 
in either place. The region is one of the best sugar- 
raising sections of the island, and there is the usual 
promiscuous cultivation of small fruits and a few 
vegetables. Guayama boasts of the finest church 
edifice on the island. It has a frontage of some sixty 
feet, and a depth of one hundred and thirty. Its in- 
terior decorations and its altars are unusually good 
for so small a place. None of the churches of the 
island, however, are remarkably impressive. They 
are well constructed, and some of them are quite 
old, but all of them are wholly conventional in their 
architecture, and such artistic effect as most of them 
present is due rather to the decorations which time 
and exposure have placed upon their walls, than to 
any special skill of the architect. 



118 THE PORTO RICO OF TO-DAY 

Between Cayey and San Juan there is but one 
town of any note until the suburban village of Eio 
Piedras is reached, just outside the capital city. The 
location and the surroundings of this town of Cagu- 
as are admirable. In fact, it is location and sur- 
roundings which give any of these island towns their 
measure of attractiveness. Nature has been most 
lavish in her distribution of beauty spots, and man 
has done as much as could well be done to defile 
them. There is a certain picturesqueness in a 
thatched palm-leaf hut out in the country with a 
harmonious setting of banana -plants, palms, and 
mango-trees. But in fifty or a hundred shadeless 
huts grouped together in a town there is nothing 
save an effect of dirt and squalor. In thus clustering 
around a larger centre the Porto Kican displays the 
same gregarious tendency which leads the Chinese to 
live on sampans at Shanghai, and thousands of peo- 
ple to herd in crowded tenement-houses in New York 
City. 

Rio Piedras is a small suburban town a few miles 
from San Juan. Some distinction is given it by rea- 
son of its having been, during the Spanish regime, 
the summer residence of the governor-general of the 
island. The " summer palace " is a large and rather 
rambling wooden structure in the rear of the cathe- 
dral, heavily shaded by trees, and presenting no 



FEOM PONCE TO SAN JUAN 119 

special attraction except a beautifully shaded avenue 
running througli a very badly kept rear garden. This 
building was placed at the disposal of, and was used 
by, the American army head-quarters during the 
weeks which preceded the evacuation of the capital. 

Through all these towns there runs this splendid 
military road. The sj^stem by which it is maintained 
is admirable and effective. It is divided into sec- 
tions varying from two to four or five kilometres, 
and each section is provided with a brick building, 
usually square, one story in height. These cam- 
ineroSy as they are called, are used as the dwelling- 
houses of peons whose business is the repairing of 
the roads. Each peon has his section, for which he 
is held responsible, and his entire time is presumably 
spent in supervision and repairs. Piles of broken 
stone are kept along the roadside, and it is the work 
of the peon to use this stone in the correction of any 
defect immediately upon its appearance. The prin- 
ciple employed is that excellent one of " a stitch in 
time." One also finds a numerous sprinkling of an- 
other pattern of " road house." These are little way- 
side shanties which serve their vicinity as " stores," 
and serve all comers who are afflicted with that kind 
of a thirst, with such quantity of native rum as may 
be desired. It is a sort of drunkard's paradise, 
though one rarely encounters a drunken native. Ten 



120 THE PORTO EICO OF TO-DAY 

centavos will give any man a very long start on the 
road to a royal drunk. Porto Eican rum is not a 
safe tiling for a novice to use extensively in trying 
chemical experiments with his internal organization. 
It is potent and far reaching, and I should judge that 
its continued use would be quite as wholesome as the 
use of corrosive sublimate. There is, however, a dif- 
ference. There is Porto Eico rum and Porto Eico 
rum. 

Not until the entire island shall have been equipped 
with a system of arterial highways approximating in 
their structure and their maintenance this main 
road from Ponce to San Juan, will Porto Eico waken 
to the possibilities of her resources. It is useless 
to produce if the cost of transportation exceeds the 
value of the product. The island is small, but the 
possibility of two or three crops a year of some of 
those articles which might well be among its chief 
products, virtually doubles or trebles a large area of 
its territory. Taxation of the island has been made 
generally unpopular because of excessive imposition. 
It would very likely cause much complaint and pro- 
test for the new government to impose a tax for the 
construction and maintenance of such a system of 
highways. 

The present demand is rather for a relief from tax- 
ation than for the imposition of any tax beyond that 



FEOM PONCE TO SAN JUAN 121 

required for the administration of affairs. Just now, 
public improvement is a theory, a dream, a thing for 
manana, Eoads like the one from Ponce to San 
Juan are wanted all over the island, but no one wants 
to pay for them. Probably the feeling will change 
when the islanders shall have had some brief breath- 
ing time and an opportunity to pull themselves to- 
gether after their days of suspense and exciting 
change. That which is now a somewhat vague desire 
will become a demand which will find a ready and a 
cheerful response. A few months of reasonable pros- 
perity under the conditions which will doubtless fol- 
low as a result of American control, will bring more 
closely home to the people their need of better high- 
ways. 



IX 

HIGHWAYS 

An Important Factor in Island Development— Present Highway Sys- 
tem—A Hard Journey— The Bovimotor— The Boy and the 
Coachman — Fun for the Boy, and Entertainment for the Audi- 
ence—Porto Rican Drivers— The Need of Good Roads— Costly 
Transportation— A Heavy Charge on Industries. 

The development of the island of Porto Eico will 
depend in great measure upon the improvement of 
its facilities for inland transportation. The three 
leading cities — San Juan, Ponce, and Mayaguez — are 
situated on the coast. A few of the larger towns, 
such as Arecibo, Aguadilla, and Fajardo are similar- 
ly located. One or two, like Guayama and Huma- 
cao, may also be reckoned as coast towns. These 
all serve as outlets for the products of their vicinity, 
and receive the greater portion of their purchases 
from the outside world by steamer or sailing craft. 
The interior, and long sections of coast-line, are de- 
pendent upon pack-trains and bullock-carts. This 
limits production by reason of the expense of trans- 
portation, and unduly increases the cost of living, 

for the same reason. 

123 



HIGHWAYS 123 

The comparatively limited district reached by mil- 
itary roads possesses, in consequence of them, a 
marked advantage over other sections. Only a small 
portion of the island is touched by these highways. 
The area of the island is, approximately, 3,600 
square miles. It claims but 150 miles of respectable 
highway. Some of this is as good as any to be 
found anywhere in the United States. Some of it is 
only fairly good, and some of it is more than doubt- 
ful. This includes what are known as the military 
roads. As the country is practically destitute of rail- 
way facilities, the government conceived the idea of 
constructing a complete system of military highways 
throughout the island, over which troops could be 
readily and speedily transferred from point to point, 
and out of which the officials could make a fat thing 
for themselves. The result was the present system — 
which is, by just so much, better than none at all. 

Aside from this possible 150 miles, one might 
almost say there are no roads. There are certain 
narrow ways set apart for road purposes, and used 
for such when it is possible to use them. But they 
are at all times abominable, and at frequent times 
they are wholly impassable, even for the native bul- 
lock teams. The common service for the interior, 
and for many portions of the coast area, is the sad- 
dle-horse for passengers, and the mule or the pack. 



124 THE POETO EIOO OF TO-DAY 

horse for freiglit. This is sometimes carried in pan- 
niers and sometimes in bulk packages, after the 
manner of some of our wild Kocky Mountain re- 
gions. In that country, however, the system is 
sometimes imperative. Here it is needless. Good 
roads are possible, and good roads are needed. 
The island produces about 30,000 tons of coffee an- 
nually. A very large percentage of this must be 
transported from the plantations to the shipping 
port in packages on the backs of mules or horses, 
and often over what are mere bridle-paths cut into 
the hill-sides. It is a laborious and expensive 
method of doing business, and adds unduly to the 
cost of the merchandise. 

Aside from the question of the transportation of 
merchandise, there is the matter of passenger traffic. 
It is the affair of the people themselves if they see 
fit to put up with the delays, the inconveniences, and 
the discomforts which arise from the present custom. 
It is perhaps nobody's business if every Porto Eican 
is shaken into fragments, pounded into pulp, ham- 
pered in his business, and handicapped in the mar- 
ket, by reason of the roads over which he travels, or 
by reason of the lack of them. But the people of 
America have now an interest in the development of 
the country. A new condition has arisen. American 
tourists will soon be going there by hundreds and 



HIGHWAYS 125 

by thousands, to see the beautiful island, with its 
marvellously beautiful mountains and its wealth of 
verdure. The capitalist will go to develop its re- 
sources. The tourist cannot see the land, and the 
capitaKst will work against heavy odds, unless there 
be passable roads over which the one may go for 
pleasure and the other for profit. 

One of my many experiences over these so-called 
" country roads " was a journey from Ponce to Maya- 
guez. The distance between the two cities is not far 
from sixty miles. The first twenty-five miles or so, 
to Yauco, one covers very comfortably in an hour 
and a half by means of that little substitute for 
a railroad which runs from Ponce to Yauco. The 
man of the world who accepts what he finds and 
makes no complaint about it, will be very well satis- 
fied with what he finds at the little Hotel Victoria in 
Yauco. The bed is good, the dinner is abundant and 
good after the manner of Spanish dinners, and the 
visitor mil receive every possible courtesy and atten- 
tion. The next morning he will start for Mayaguez, 
unless he wishes to spend a pleasant day in pleasant 
Yauco and Guanica. He may go in the saddle or 
by carriage. Personally, I can find no pleasure on 
board of a Porto Rican pony. The beasts are so 
small that it seems a cruelty to put even ten stone 
weight on their bony backs. Beyond that, it is my 



126 THE PORTO RICO OF TO-DAY 

experience thus far that most of them give out com- 
pletely after a trip of six or seyen miles. Then they 
must either be clubbed along or lugged along. 

I therefore contracted for a carriage and pair from 
Yauco to Mayaguez, with a relay at Sabana Grande. 
I reached my destination in sections. I do not know 
if the whole of me arrived or not. My knowledge of 
anatomy is too superficial to enable me to determine 
whether some portion of my system, conventional 
but not vital, does not even now dangle from some 
barbed-wire fence, or droop gracefully among the 
cocoa-nuts at the top of some tall tree along the road 
from Yauco to Mayaguez. As I have got along very 
well since that occasion, I have concluded that either 
the whole of me arrived, or that I can do without 
anything which did not come. I have had much 
experience with the rocky roads of the mountains of 
Western Carolina. I have loitered along, hub deep 
in the thick, black mud of Southern Illinois and of 
Nebraska. But for rocks, mud, and general physical 
discomfort, the first fifteen miles of that road from 
Yauco to Mayaguez can give anything of which 
I know in the United States ten to one, and win 
out in a canter. Once we mired down completely 
and had to be extracted by the citizens of the vicin- 
ity. The horses lost their pluck; the driver lost 
his temper; and I made some sacrifice of that 



HIGHWAYS 127 

mental placidity which is advocated by the Socratic 
school. 

At another point I saw that any attempt to go on 
would only result in the utter collapse of the horses. 
I ordered a halt for the purpose of investigating pos- 
sibilities and probabilities. While engaged in that 
very unsatisfactory proceeding, a beneficent Provi- 
dence sent along the road a native with a pair of 
stout-looking black cattle with their yoke. I held up 
the native and made a contract with him. It resulted 
in the removal of the horses from the pole, and the 
attachment to the carriage of the black bullocks. For 
the greater part of the next six miles, those beasts 
dragged me at a snail's pace through that black and 
sticky mud. The spokes of the wheels were invisi- 
ble, through the filling of the spaces with a solid 
mass of Porto E-ican highway. Once or twice, at 
particularly treacherous-looking places, I alighted 
and walked through the bordering fields to avoid 
the risk of complete burial. 

The one bright spot of that trip arose in a con- 
versation which took place between my driver and 
a native boy mounted on a remarkably alert native 
pony. The boy and I enjoyed it. The driver did 
not. The lad ranged up alongside and commented 
unfavorably upon the driver's style and his manner 
of handhng his team. The horses were quite used 



128 THE PORTO EIOO OF TO-DAY 

up, and the driver was nearly so. For some two 
miles that young rascal rode beside us and chaffed 
and blackguarded that driver. He paid as little 
heed to Jehu's voluble profanity, as he did to Jehu's 
efforts to lash him or his pony with what was left of 
Jehu's whip. He had fun with that driver. He 
indulged in personal remarks. He commented on 
the outfit, the style of the carriage, the build and 
the action of the horses. Jehu's wrath was unlimit- 
ed, but the boy had the call on him in rapidity of 
motion, and the poor man was helpless. I was 
rather sorry when the lad fired a parting shot and 
turned into the yard of a wayside house. He did me 
good. He took me out of a despondent and mud- 
dy world and brightened the whole trip immeas- 
urably. 

Ten miles or so before reaching Mayaguez, one 
comes to a bit of military road, and finds a sweet 
and precious relief, and an opportunity to get 
enough of himself together to appear in human sem- 
blance on his arrival in the city. This was not my 
only experience, and I write from no temporary dis- 
agreement with that particular stretch of road. 
There are many miles like unto it, and I have tra- 
versed some of them. But they are the only thing 
which is to be found between the comparatively few 
miles of good military road and the bridle-paths of 



HIGHWAYS 129 

the mountains. I trust that none save the venture- 
some, the robust, and those in search of experiences, 
may be led into any attempt to travel by bridle- 
paths. I have tried them in the daytime, and I 
have tried them at night. On the whole, I think I 
prefer to travel over them at night. One cannot 
then see the difficulties and the dangers. One 
knows, by the position of the horse, whether he is 
climbing a wall or going down a precipice. He 
knows when his horse is floundering in a bog-hole. 
He knows when the horse is feeling for a foothold 
on the bottom of some swift and rocky stream. 
More than that, it is not necessary to know. The 
best way under such circumstances is to drop the 
bridle and hold the breath. One seems to have 
more use for breath than for bridles. 

Something could be done for human comfort in a 
carriage-trip over these roads, if the Porto Eico 
drivers could be taught how to drive. They seem to 
have no desire or purpose except to " get there." Vp 
hill and down, over rough and over smooth, they 
pound and flog their poor miserable beasts along, 
with never a chance to rest or breathe. Kemon- 
strance is almost useless. Three times on my trip to 
Mayaguez did I get out and stand before the horses 
where my cochero could not start without running me 
down. On another trip of eighteen miles over the 



130 THE POETO RICO OF TO-DAY 

mountains, my driyer used three sets of horses, and 
two of the pairs were utterly exhausted upon reach- 
ing the end of their short stage. Not only are better 
roads much needed, but better horses and better 
drivers are almost equally so. But the two latter are 
only desirable, while the first is a necessity for the 
commercial interests of the land. 

An idea prevails very widely among many of the 
islanders that not only has the great government of 
the United States come to give them a better gov- 
ernment, but that it has also come to give them a 
great many other things without their doing anything 
themselves. It might not be at all a bad idea to give 
them an object-lesson, right on the start, that would 
afford them a clearer comprehension of the fact that 
the aim of the United States Government is not so 
much to give everybody all he wants, or to do every- 
thing that anybody would like to have done, as it is 
to enable its people to get things, and to do things, 
for themselves. Therefore, if some fifty thousand or 
so of Porto Eicans could be set at work on the high- 
ways for a few weeks, under the supervision of com- 
petent engineers, it might be a valuable lesson to 
them, and at the same time, do something that very 
much needs doing. 

Of course, not all roads are equally bad. Nor are 
the bad roads always at their worst. Something de- 



HIGHWAYS 131 

pends upon the season of the year, tlie wetness of 
the wet season, and the dryness of the dry season. 

But, with the exception of the limited number of 
miles of military highway, I could see no evidence 
of any road system on the island, except that where 
the people wanted to go, a passage was opened and 
people rode over it. It must be admitted that the 
natural conditions of the island are generally far 
from being at all favorable for roadways. Along the 
low lands of the coast there are many long stretches 
of bog and swamp. These, when properly drained, 
make the productive cane-fields. The soil is a rich, 
black loam of considerable depth, which turns to a 
sea of mud on the slightest provocation. At present 
this black soil is both the bane and the blessing of 
the sugar planter. It makes his crop, and it also 
makes the mud-holes through which he must drag 
his crop to get it to market. As the cane is cut 
not far from the end of the rainy season, difficult or 
impassable highways are clearly a serious and ex- 
pensive obstacle in the cultivation of sugar-cane. 
Cocoa-nuts, and a variety of small fruits, also find 
the most favorable conditions for their growth along 
these lowlands of the coast area. All are, of course, 
subject to the same drawback to their extensive cul- 
tivation which obtains in the case of sugar. 

The mountain agriculturist is confronted with the 



132 THE POIITO RICO OF TO-DAY 

same general adverse conditions as those whicli oc- 
cur in the experience of the man of the lowlands, 
though there are differences of detail. The soil of 
the mountains, generally, lends itself more readily to 
f road construction. But in the mountains the rains 
; are heavier and more frequent, and nothing but roads 
of superior construction are capable of withstanding 
the gullying torrents which sometimes sweep the hill- 
sides. Throughout the major portion of the island 
the hill slopes are precipitous and deeply convo- 
luted. Here and there one finds a comparatively 
level basin, but they are infrequent and usually of 
small area. Highways over the mountains would be 
made to best advantage by the cutting of banks or 
benches on the hill-sides, ascending by the easiest 
possible grade, and winding in and out of the coves 
and around the ridges to follow the convolutions. 
Much care would be needed, and provision for prop- 
er drainage and for bridges and culverts would be 
almost imperative at the inner end of the greater 
number of the coves. 

As the lowlands make the best sugar lands, so do 
the hills make the best coffee section. The island 
should produce fifty thousand tons of coffee annu- 
ally. At present the greater portion of the coffee crop 
is carried to the coast in packs on the little island 
ponies. The difference in cost of transporting fifty 



HIGHWAYS 133 

thousand tons of coffee alone, by this method, and of 
carrying by wagon over a good road, would, in a few 
years pay for scores of miles of suitable roadway. 
The mountain district of the island may be safely ' 
estimated at three-fourths of the entire area. ! 

Of this territory, probably not more than ^\e per 
cent, is under cultivation for commercial or market 
purposes. Some portion of it is, of course, unsuit- 
able for agricultural purposes, and could only be used 
for grazing. A small percentage would be unavail- 
able for any purpose. This limited cultivation is in 
a measure due to the lack of energy and ambition on 
the part of the native people. But beyond that and 
operating as a factor in the apathy of the natives, 
has always stood the lack of encouragement to 
greater activity. The difficulty and the undue cost 
of transportation of products, have acted in some 
cases as a limiting force, and in many cases as a 
wholly prohibitive force. 

The people of the island have been heavily taxed ' 
for road construction, but the roads for which they 
have paid have not been built. One will often hear 
the remark through the country, that if they had all 
for which they have paid, the highways would be 
paved with gold. No repetition of this process is at 
all needed. The United States have assumed con- 
trol of the island with an assurance of the begin- 



134 THE PORTO EICO OF TO-DAY 

ning of a new order of things. One of the planks 
in the Porto Kico platform is relief from politi- 
cal oppression and from the robbery, through taxa- 
tion, of which the island people have been made 
the victims. We have plenty of honest and skilful 
engineers. If it were possible for us to send some 
of them to Porto Eico to supervise the work and the 
expenditure involved in the construction of an ade- 
quate system of roads and highways, it would be a 
most excellent investment for the island to borrow a 
suitable sum of money for such a purpose. The isl- 
and is now wholly free from debt. Financial obliga- 
tion, per se, is no advantage to any country. Good 
roads are an imperative need in the development of 
Porto Eico. The assumption of a few milHons of 
dollars of obligation, to be honestly expended in 
highway construction, would be an excellent and 
profitable investment rather than a debt. State roads 
are rapidly growing in favor here in the United 
States where their construction is a convenience and 
a desirability. In Porto Eico, the position goes be- 
yond either of those points, and places good roads 
in the list of absolute necessities. Without them, a 
vast area of our new possession remains an uncul- 
tivated wilderness. With them, hundreds of thou- 
sands of acres can be utilized as profitably produc- 
tive farms and plantations. 



RAILROADS AND TELEGRAPHS 

The Railways of To-day— The Ponce and Yauco Division— The Hu- 
miliation of a Traveller — The Solitary Occupant of the Apartment 
of the First Class— Familiar Sights in a Foreign Land — ^The Re- 
quirements of the Island — Present System of Transportation — 
Probable Benefits of Railway Extension — The United States in 
the Telegraph Business— Cable Lines. 

A FEW years ago the island of Porto Rico passed I 
through a spasm of desire for progress and develop- j 
ment. I have been unable to learn positively whether | 
the scheme for the construction of a railroad was 
originated and developed by the people of the island 
for their general benefit, or whether it was the work 
of the particular set of officials who were then en- 
gaged in the process of making a fortune out of the 
island within the briefest possible time. But what- 
ever the source of the idea, a railroad was projected ' 
which should encircle the island. Work was begun 
at different points, and the result of the work is 
manifest to-day in the shape of three short stretches 
of what passes for a railroad, and sundry officials 

whose financial status was decidedly bettered by the 

135 



136 THE POETO EICO OF TO-DAY 

enterprise. It is claimed that there are now one 
hundred and forty-three miles of railroad in opera- 
tion, with one hundred and seventy miles under con- 
struction. Those in operation include the line from 
Ponce to Yauco, on the south coast; the line from 
Hormigueros to Aguadilla, passing through Maya- 
guez, on the west coast ; and the line which runs 
westward from San Juan, through Bayamon and Are- 
cibo, to Camuy, on the northern coast. These are 
all single-track roads, and of narrow gauge. The 
equipment is decidedly primitive, and the whole af- 
fair strikes an American as being rather toy -like. 

Taking these outlines in more accurate detail, the 
statement would be as follows : 

The Ponce and Yauco division shows twenty-six 
miles of main track, and passes through the villages 
of Guayanilla and Tallaboa. The line from Hormi- 
gueros to Aguadilla covers a fraction of over forty- 
three miles of main track, and includes the city of 
Mayaguez, and the towns of Anasco, Eincon, and 
Aguada, along its route. From San Juan to Camuy 
the line is seventy-four and one-third miles. Its 
principal stations are Bayamon and Arecibo, though 
it includes some half dozen more of less importance. 
There is a line of some sixteen miles running from 
San Juan, through Eio Piedras, to Carolina. There 
is also a steam tram-line running from San Juan to 



RAILROADS AND TELEGRAPHS 137 

the suburban town of Bio Piedras. This is now said 
to be in the hands of Chicago parties. 

My first experience with this railway system will 
serve as a fair illustration of the probable experience 
of any travellers whose good fortune enables them to 
exchange the miseries of a carriage journey around 
the island, for the greater comfort of a railway trip 
over a portion of the route. My objective point was 
Mayaguez, and I decided to experiment in Porto 
Eican railways to the extent of a trip to Yauco, the 
termination of the road in the direction in which I 
wished to go. On the southern border of the city of 
Ponce, a few rods back from the highway, one sees a 
rusty-looking building, of two stories in height, with 
a half-effaced " Ponce " painted upon the end toward 
the roadway. An investigation will reveal some 
grass- covered tracks and sundry boxes on small 
wheels which an active imagination will turn into 
freight-cars. A further exercise of the imaginative 
faculty enables one to determine that he is at the 
Ponce station of the Compafiia de los FerrocarTiles 
de Puerto Rico. Doors facing upon the grass-grown 
trackway bear the following signs : Ynspeccion, Tele- 
grafo, Oficina, and Equipages. The apartment desig- 
nated as Equipages, is evidently the waiting-room, 
and in one corner of it a window is indicated as the 
ticket-officer by means of a sign marked, Bespacho de 



138 THE PORTO RICO OF TO-DAY 

Billetes, As I had never seen any sign of a moving 
or a waiting train about the station during any of my 
frequent journeys past the building, it seemed neces- 
sary to obtain some information regarding time- 
tables. jL^ 

I pegged away at my Spanish until I had evolved 
a sentence which seemed of admirable construction 
and entire correctness. At the station I found a man 
who wore an official cap and a pleasant smile. He 
wore other things also, but those were the most no- 
ticeable. I faced him and proceeded to unload my 
specimen of pure Castilian. '* Que liora el tren para ( 
Yauco ? " said I. I considered this as a masterpiece. 
For means " for," but had I said por Yauco it would, 
in that connection, have meant *' through Yauco," a 
feat which was beyond the immediate possibilities of 
the Compania de los Ferrocarriles de Puerto Bico, a 
title which rather overweights the outfit. Therefore 
fara was the word, and I was proud of my accom- 
plishments. But my pride took the usual tumble. 
The genial official looked at me even more genially, 
and replied : *' 'E goes to Yauco at 'alf pas' four." 
" The deuce he does," said I. " Look here, old chap, 
your English seems to be an improvement on my 
Spanish. Therefore, with your kind permission, we 
will conduct our further negotiations in the tongue 
which will soon become the established language of 



EAILROADS AND TELEGRAPHS 139 

this beautiful island." I fancy that this peroration 
rather floored him, but he grinned very genially, and 
we resorted to a compound of American and Spanish 
monosyllables, and got along beautifully. 

As there was no " 'alf pas' four " until the following 
day, I had ample time to prepare my mind and my sim- 
ple luggage for the journey of thirty-five kilometres 
from Ponce to Yauco. Shortly before the appointed 
hour, I found what was called the tren standing on the 
grass-plot in front of the station. It consisted of two 
or three diminutive freight-cars, a toy mail-car, and a 
couple of coaches of about the size of an American 
street-car. The whole was drawn by a toy locomo- 
tive. As a piece of mechanical skill, the engine was 
open to little criticism. So far as its working parts 
were visible, they presented every evidence of being 
of the first class. It was of solid and substantial 
structure, and of an English pattern, though, I think, 
of Spanish make. The gauge of the track is three 
feet eleven and a quarter inches. 

One of the coaches was marked III. The other 
was divided into two compartments, one finished in 
plain wood, and marked II., the other upholstered 
with leather, and marked I. The numerals indicated 
the class. The third-class car was soon filled by the 
waiting passengers. Evidently the third-class is the 
popular and common mode of travel. The second- 



140 THE PORTO RICO OF TO-DAY 

class compartment held four American soldiers, who 
paid no fare. The imposing first-class compartment 
held one American newspaper man and his gripsack. 
The newspaper man regretted his ignorant act, and 
trembled lest he be charged with ostentation. But 
one American dollar for a railway trip of an hour and 
a half does not strike an unsophisticated American 
newspaper man as wildly extravagant — if his paper 
pays the bill. 

The train tore on its way at the frightful speed of 
some sixteen miles an hour. The road runs through 
beautiful country. It is not easy to find any country 
here that is not beautiful. The line follows the coast 
generally. Upon one side were frequent views of the 
ocean, and upon the other a constant panorama of 
exquisitely beautiful mountain scenery, with the rich 
lights and shades of the evening sun resting on the 
wrinkled sides of the hills. The road-bed is fairly 
good, and the well-built culverts, where the line 
crosses the little streams, might well be imitated by 
many a railroad in the States. "We ran past acres of 
sugar-cane, and stopjped at two little villages — Talla- 
boa and Guayanilla. The engine-whistle screamed 
at curves and crossings with all the vigor of which it 
was capable, and with a volume and tone which sug- 
gested those boyish instruments of ear-torture which 
I used to make in days of youth out of an empty 



RAILEOADS AI^D TELEGRAPHS 141 

fomato-can and waxed cord. I believe they were 
called, very appropriately, " devil's fiddles." I got 
rather tired of that engine-whistle, and beg to refer 
the operators of the road to some of the statistics, 
which show the cost of the locomotive whistle through 
the waste of steam. 

In spite of the wide difference in environment, and 
in the difference of my mechanical and social sur- 
roundings, I think that no other experience on the 
island quite took me back to America as did that 
little run on that pocket edition of a railroad. At 
the little stations at which we stopped there was the 
same group of curious idlers, the " committee of the 
unemployed," gathered as self-appointed delegates to 
" see the train come in," that will be found around 
the depot of any country town in America. At Yauco, 
a large percentage of the population had gathered for 
the same purpose. Friends greeted the friends who 
arrived, and the idlers gaped and stared in the most 
conventional manner of their kind. A horde of urchins 
and a few of larger growth clamored for the chance of 
earning a few centavos by carrying one's satchels to 
house or hotel. There was the familiar centrifugal 
movement of the crowd as the train pulled in, the 
familiar thronging about the steps as the passengers 
alighted, and the usual reflux and dispersion immedi- 
ately following. But the vision faded as I made my 



142 THE POETO KICO OF TO-DAY 

way to the hotel, and disappeared utterly when I 
entered it. 

Porto Eico needs a proper railway system, and it 
needs American capital and American brains to build 
it. The first company in the field is likely to hold a 
monopoly, as a district which is hardly haK the size 
of the State of New Jersey does not present unlim- 
ited chances for competition. It is therefore quite 
desirable that such an enterprise be essayed by 
bona-fide operators, and that no franchise be granted 
to those whose aim is purely speculative, and who 
are unsupported by the actual cash capital necessary 
for construction and operation. The amount re- 
quired would not be large, from the stand-point of 
American railway investments, and the returns would 
doubtless be ample. Some four to five hundred 
miles of track are all that would be necessary, and 
perhaps all that would be desirable, at present. The 
1 belt line should be completed. It would draw from 
and supply the lowland border of the coast line, and 
by doing so greatly economize in the expense of 
marketing the sugar crop, which is the principal in- 
dustry of that region. It would also open many pos- 
sibilities in the direction of other agricultural indus- 
tries. It would connect a considerable number of 
the principal towns and cities, and so facilitate the 
exchange of commodities locally. The present sys- 



EAILROADS AJ^D TELEGRAPHS 143 

tern is by means of a small steamer which has 
been wont to circle the island, stopping at a regular 
line of ports. Its trips, though continuous, were 
necessarily infrequent, and, for passengers, often too 
tardy for satisfactory service. In a trip from San 
Juan to Ponce, the choice lies between a drive of a 
hundred miles across the island, or the water journey 
around it. The drive is made, with relays, in about 
fourteen hours. The cost, before the arrival of the 
Americans, is said to have been sixteen pesos, or 
about ten dollars, according to the rate of exchange. 
Americans, all of whom were evidently regarded as 
the possessors of more money than was good for 
them, were charged from thirty to forty pesos for the 
trip. 

Fourteen hours in a carriage is a hard and tiring 
journey even over that best of roads from San Juan 
to Ponce. The alternative was the water journey, 
which might take two days or more. This, in pleas- 
ant weather, is a charming little voyage if one is in no 
hurry, and is a good sailor. But the weather is not 
always pleasant, the sea is not always smooth, and 
one is sometimes in something of a hurry, even in 
Porto Rico. Under the present system, there is no 
such thing as prompt delivery of goods from place to 
place on the island, unless it happen that a steamer 
is about to start for the point to which the goods are 



144 THE POETO EICO OF TO-DAY 

to go. Manifestly, both travel, and foreign and do- 
mestic traffic, are heayily handicapped through lack 
of railroad facilities. 

The belt line, with its deviations from the direct 
course in order to strike certain points which should 
be included in its route, would measure not far from 
three hundred and fifty miles. It should be under 
that rather than above it. Another line is needed 
quite as much as this, if not more. The coast cities 
and towns can be reached, in many cases, by the 
water route. They are much less cut ofT than are 
the inland points. Therefore, this other line should 
cross the island from east to west, bisecting it as 
equally as the topography of the region will permit. 
The ground has already been looked over by compe- 
tent authority, and a route has been j)artially deter- 
mined which is pronounced wholly feasible. Such a 
route should have its western terminus at Mayaguez, 
run from there northeast to Lares, and from Lares 
eastward to touch the best possible coast point by 
the way of Caguas or Cayey. This, with the belt- 
line, would run three generally parallel tracks across 
the island from east to west, with a north and south 
track at each end. As the island is something 
less than forty miles in average width, such a 
system would bring any and all parts of it within, 
generally, ten miles of a railroad. Branch lines 



EAILROADS AND TELEGKAPHS 145 

could be run to points wliicli promised a paying 
traffic. 

The motive power might be either steam or elec- 
tricity, according to the economy of the one or the 
other for the amount of business to be done. 
Whether any or all of it would prove financially prof- 
itable is largely a matter of speculation. The con- 
struction of such a system would open up hundreds 
of thousands of acres of available land, and greatly 
enhance the value of real estate without necessarily 
greatly increasing the cost of it to immediate pur- 
chasers. The prices already asked for the land seem 
far beyond a reasonable valuation under the present 
conditions. The railway would turn what now seems 
a fictitious value into an actual value. This system 
may seem over-extensive for the island. It probably 
is for the immediate time. But in just so far as it is 
carried out, the resources of the island will be given 
opportunity for development. Unless it is done, 
Porto Eico is quite likely to stay where it now is — a 
rich garden, uncultivated, neglected, wasted. 

The cost of construction of such a railway is a 
matter for the determination of experts. Most of 
the coast line would run over fairly level land, but 
some bridging and some fills would be needed. Bal- 
lasting would be required in some of the boggy and 
swampy land, but an ample supply of rock is readily 



146 THE PORTO RICO OF TO-DAY 

available. Some skilful engineering work would be 
required for the middle, or mountain, line. There 
are ranges to be crossed at considerable altitudes, 
and many of the gaps could only be reached by devi-? 
ous climbing up the precipitous hill-sides. All cost 
of operations would best be estimated on an Ameri- 
can basis, plus the cost of transportation. Labor is 
abundant, and it should be cheap ; but its nominal 
cost would be enhanced by reason of its inefficiency. 
A dozen or two of experienced American section 
hands would do the work of several scores of jabber- 
ing Porto Rican peons, who have not been trained to 
regular and persistent work. Rails would have to be 
sent out, though there is a considerable stock already 
piled up for a track which is said to be "under con- 
struction." It is probable that there would be an 
advantage in sending out cross-ties and bridge tim- 
bers. There is wood on the island, but the greater 
portion of it is either unsuitable, or else is too valua- 
ble for such purposes. 

I am unable to say in just whose hands the own- 
ership of the present incomplete system rests. The 
contract for its construction was given to a French 
company, but if there was not some kind of a " stand 
in " on the part of Spanish officials, it was an un- 
usual piece of Spanish official conduct. This con- 
tract, I am told, was once annulled because of the 



EAILEOADS AIS^D TELEGRAPHS 147 

failure of the contractors to fulfil tlie terms of the 
agreement. The matter was patched up, probably 
bj the use of a little golden solder. It might be 
possible for American investors to obtain this char- 
ter and the railroad property at a reasonable price. 
Failing that, or failing to oblige the present com- 
pany to fulfil its contract with due promptness, it 
might be advisable to run a new road wholly inde- 
pendent of the old. The matter of the " inherent 
righteousness " of such a proceeding might lie in 
a question of equity, or it might lie in the ques- 
tion of the honest act and intention of the present 
owners. 

The island is supplied with a fairly effective tele- 
graph system, which extends to all the principal 
towns and cities. Its methods and appliances are 
not entirely up to date, but it has answered all pur- 
poses. The property belonged to and was main- 
tained by the government. Private messages were 
accepted and forwarded at a fixed tariff, though gov- 
ernment or official messages were given precedence 
over all private or commercial communications. 
With the transfer of the island, the system passes 
into the hands of the United States Government. I 
encountered a somewhat unique complaint regarding 
the line after it had come into the hands of the 
American officials. It was made by a leading mer- 



148 THE PORTO RICO OF TO-DAY 

chant of Mayaguez, and was to the effect that while 
the wires were open to the public, as they had 
formerly been, and every possible courtesy was ex- 
tended, the public was not allowed to pay for the 
transmission of despatches. The ground of this un- 
usual kind of objection lay in the fact that, because 
of this courtesy and gratuitous accommodation, mer- 
chants felt reluctant to use the wires as freely as 
they wished and as freely as they would if they had 
been allowed to pay for the service. I think the 
trouble has now been remedied. 

A good deal of damage was done to the system by 
the Spanish troops as they fell back across the island. 
Wires were cut and poles were thrown down. As 
the American forces moved forward, the damages 
were repaired by the Signal Corps of our army. 
There has been a pronounced objection in many 
quarters in the United States to the government 
ownership of telegraph lines, but the fates have de- 
creed that, for a time at least, the United States 
Government shall be the proprietor of some five 
hundred miles of telegraph line with some fifty or 
more offices in different parts of the island. The sub- 
marine telegraph system is controlled by the "West 
India and Panama Telegraph Company, which oper- 
ates under a contract having several years yet to run. 
The cable service of the island is a monopoly. With 



RAILROADS AND TELEGRAPHS 149 

a half -built and wholly inadequate railway service, a 
goYernment ownership of the local telegraph line 
and a foreign monopoly of the cable connection, 
some interesting problems are presented in the de- 
partments of railways and telegraphs in Porto Eico. 



XI 

INDUSTRIAL POSSIBILITIES 

Our New Farm — Mining Possibilities and Timber Lands — ^The Out- 
look for Sugar — The Coffee Industry — Encouragement in To- 
bacco-growing — Obstacles to Export Fruit Trade — Cattle-raising 

l — An American Bermuda — ^Victims of Manana. 

Porto Rico is evidently a farm, and not a work- 
shop. Its resources are almost exclusively agricult- 
ural. There is a theory of mining possibilities, but 
thus far I have been unable to find any foundation 
for it. What foundation there is seems to lie in two 
directions. One of these appears in the old tales of 
nearly four hundred years ago, when the discoverers 
of the island and its early settlers claimed the new 
possession as a land of gold. The other appears in 
the old saying that "the wish is the father of the 
thought." If there be gold there, it seems strange 
that four hundred years of hunger for the yellow 
metal should not have established the fact of its 
presence beyond all doubt. Iron is there, and also 
copper and galena. But until these metals become 

less readily and less economically available in scores 

150 



INDUSTRIAL POSSIBILITIES 151 

of other places, there is little to encourage invest- 
ment in their development in Porto Eico. Still, 
mining possibilities are always questions for determi- 
nation by mining experts, and valuable properties 
may even yet be found to exist on the island. 

There is little encouragement in timber. There 
are some fine woods on the island, but the commer- 
cial supply is very limited. The area throughout 
which such woods are to be found is of comparatively 
small extent, and is exceedingly rough in character. 
A moderate amount of highly valuable timber might 
be got out at a reasonable cost, but the greater por- 
tion of what there is is of mountain growth, and its 
removal would involve the construction of roads or 
logways through a country which is even rougher 
than our Southern mountains. Some logs can and 
will be taken out at profitable prices, but there is 
hardly enough of timber-land to make any very ex- 
tensive business. 

It is chiefly to the cultivation of the rich and fertile 
soil of the island that we must look for its industrial 
wealth. There we enter a promising field. Sugar, 
coffee, and tobacco are now its principal products, 
with rum and Porto Eico molasses as important by- 
products. At present sugar-raising is a somewhat 
doubtful enterprise. The low price of raw sugar dur- 
ing recent years has caused the suspension of opera- 



152 THE POETO RICO OF TO-DAY 

tions on a large number of plantations in different 
parts of the island. The possibility of cane-raising 
at a profit under the conditions likely to be presented 
by the market for some time to come is an open 
question. How much might be accomplished by the 
application of thoroughly systematic business meth- 
ods upon the plantation, I am unable to say. That 
does not seem to be a common practice. It may be 
that Porto Kican sugar has seen its best days. There 
are other lands in which the cane is produced with 
less of labor and less of risk than in Porto Eico. 

Weather conditions sometimes interfere to the 
serious injury or loss of crops. Different conditions 
during the same year may be presented in different 
parts of the island. There may be excessive rains or 
excessive drought in certain portions, while in other 
portions the conditions may be entirely favorable. 
Many acres of sugar land of excellent quality can be 
bought. 

Out of some of them good money could doubtless 
be made by the application of good business methods 
and the adoption of the best of modern machinery. 
But the investment is too speculative for any save 
those who fully understand the work, and who are 
possessed of capital enough for its successful prose- 
cution. The business requires considerable capital, 
as each plantation should operate its own mill, and 



INDUSTRIAL POSSIBILITIES 153 

an area of land must be cultivated which will war- 
rant the erection and operation of the mill. The per- 
centage of saccharine matter carried by Porto Rican 
cane is said to be high, and it is possible that this 
percentage, backed by the most effective machinery 
obtainable, might equalize or more than equalize the 
advantages presented in cane-growth in other dis- 
tricts. An economy for all sugar plantations will be 
effected by the construction of an improved highway 
system, and the introduction of the belt-line railroad 
around the island, by which the present expensive 
system of hauling the sugar to export points on the 
coast would be greatly modified. There are few 
lines of business that will warrant the hauling of a 
product on slow- moving bullock-teams, over miles of 
rocks or through miles of mud. An improvement in 
transportation facilities may mean the salvation of 
many acres of sugar lands. 

Porto Rico now produces from twenty-five to thirty 
thousand tons of coffee annually. Very little of this 
comes to the United States, and few of us have any 
idea of the excellence of the Porto Eican product. 
The finest grade is consumed on the European conti- 
nent. Most of the inferior grades are sent to Cuba. 
European prices are about the same as the price on 
the Java article. The great majority of American 
coffee-drinkers are content with the cheaper coffee 



154 THE POETO EICO OF TO-DAY 

which is obtained chiefly from the lowlands of South 
America. Those who are more particular about 
their palates sip from the fragrant cup a decoction 
which they firmly believe has come from the Persian 
Gulf or from far-famed Java. But " Mocha " and 
"Java" are now little more than trade terms for 
coffee of certain kinds rather than for coffee from 
certain localities. Most of that which we drink 
under those very respectable old titles, comes to 
us from the mountain districts of South America. 
Those who may be disposed to question this state- 
ment are referred to the custom-house reports for 
recent years, where they will find statements to show 
the quantity which we have imported of genuine 
Mocha and Java within the last ten years or so. 
They may then calculate how far that quantity would 
go in filling the demand. 

Lowland coffee yields more abundantly, but yields 
an inferior article. Upland, or hill-grown coffee is 
Ijless prolific, but its quality is superior. The Porto 
Eican coffee is all hill grown. The principal coffee 
■district is among the hills of the western third of the 
island. The conditions there are particularly favora- 
ble for its production. Coffee raising is a profitable 
industry. At least, I have yet to see a coffee-planter 
who was not in comfortable circumstances, and many 
of them are rich. Of course, there are those of small 



-I 



'9^^f} 






s 



._ I 







/ 



INDUSTRIAL POSSIBILITIES 155 

possessions who raise a little coffee, men of an acre 
or two of ground in the coffee district. But they are 
not regarded as coffee planters. Coffee-planting as i 
a business means a plantation with several hundred | 
acres under cultivation. Then it pays. There is ; 
room for some extension of the industry, though I 
am told by one whose information I regard as wholly 
competent, that it is very doubtful if the entire crop 
which the island could be made to produce would 
much more than double the present output. 

But coffee raising is no more a bonanza than is 
sugar raising. High winds may shake the berries 
from the plants, and may even play havoc with the 
entire plantation. Constant watchfulness must be 
maintained, and much careful and diligent work 
expended. The plants must be pruned to prevent 
an overgrowth which would cause deterioration of 
the quality of the berry, and increase the labor and 
difficulty of gathering. The industry requires either 
a considerable capital or a number of years of 
growth from a comparatively small investment. In 
either case time is involved. Nursery slips of a 
year's growth are set out to form the plantation, and 
two years are required before bearing. The plant 
reaches its full bearing at about the fifth year, and 
its life of service covers about twenty years. Neither 
sugar nor coffee appears to be a business for small 



156 THE PORTO RICO OF TO-DAY 

farmers. The attempt has been made to encourage 
the cultivation of cane on small plantations, by the 
erection of central mills operated on the general 
business plan of the country creamery in the United 
States. But these have not resulted in any marked 
success, and some have been complete failui'es. This 
is probably due in large measure to the lack of 
energy and ambition on the part of the small pro- 
prietors in the vicinity of the mills. Small plantings 
of coffee might be depended on as a "cash crop," 
serving the same purpose as the little cotton patch 
of many of the negroes of the Southern States. In 
coffee, as in sugar, it would appear that the average 
small planter does not find enough need for cash to 
induce him to do a little work to get it. 

Another possible industry presents itself in the 
cultivation of tobacco. Thousands of acres of land 
are entirely suitable for this crop, and a considera- 
ble business is already done. I am told by tobacco 
dealers in this country that the Porto Eican leaf has 
but little standing here. It was my own experience 
as a smoker, and that of scores of other Americans 
with whom I discussed the topic, that certain brands 
of Porto Kico cigars made a very satisfactory smoke, 
while the majority could only be classified as vile- 
There was little evidence of any effort to do anything 
more with the native tobacco than to plant it, let it 



INDUSTRIAL POSSIBILITIES 157 

grow, and after a crude process of curing, to make it 
up into a crude cigar, or into the cigarettes which 
the natives consume in vast quantity. It was also 
sold in long ropy " plugs " in stores and at the mar- 
ket-places. The prevailing idea among the Ameri- 
can visitors was that if certain varieties of leaf were 
planted and properly cultivated, a profitable indus- 
try could readily be established. It was also thought 
that if a properly cured leaf were made into cigars, 
in a proper manner, the result would be a superior 
and readily salable article. The tobacco of the isl- 
and has a distinct flavor of its own, which would 
prove wholly acceptable to a large number of users 
of the weed. 

The people of the island claim that much of their 
best tobacco now goes to Cuba, where it is manu- 
factured, and shipped to the United States as a high 
grade of Cuban product. I can see no reason to be- 
lieve that any special effort has been made toAvard 
the development of the Porto Rican weed to its 
highest stage of perfection, and I can see no reason 
to doubt that business intelligence applied to tobac- 
co culture and manufacture on the island will some 
day make Porto Rican cigars a choice article for the 
American smoker. As it is now, one may buy there, 
for two and a half to three dollars a hundred, cigars 
which average on an equality with those which retail 



158 THE PORTO EICO OF TO-DAY 

in the States at three for a quarter. But they are 
not well made or well finished, and the tobacco it- 
self is but poorly cultivated and indifferently cured. 
I am well satisfied that thousands of acres of the rich 
soil could be made immensely profitable by the cul- 
tivation of tobacco for high-grade cigars. 

The possibilities of an export trade in fruits and 
vegetables is a somewhat complicated question. Co- 
coa-nuts, bananas, mangoes, pineapples, and all trop- 
ical fruits grow, or can be made to grow, in abun- 
dance. The difficulty with the more prominent of 
these is along the line of competition with strongly 
established concerns now drawing their supplies 
from other sources. Operators already engaged in 
the fruit business have their connection for supply, 
and their channels for outlet, already determined 
and well in hand. They own warehouses and steam- 
ships adapted and constructed for their business. 
Large capital would probably be required to obtain 
an equal footing in the home market for fruit, in 
competition with the older houses. In pineapples, 
there would come the competition with a rapidly 
extending industry in Florida, which has a mani- 
fest advantage in facility for reaching the market. 
Oranges and grape-fruit offer encouraging prospects. 
The oranges already grown under no careful cultiva- 
tion, are of a quality and size which insures a supe- 



INDUSTRIAL POSSIBILITIES 159 

rior fruit if better cared for. The crop would be 
wholly safe from danger or frost, and though no more 
of a " sure thing " than any other industry, here or 
there, the outlook for prospective orange growers is 
highly encouraging. 

There are also many possibilities in vegetable 
gardening. The possibility of several crops a year 
would seem to mark the region as one eminently 
favorable for vegetable canning. There is no natural 
reason why Porto Eico should not be an American 
Bermuda for the production of such vegetables as 
are now imported from that island. It might also 
prove a serious competitor for Florida in winter 
garden products. The climate and general conditions 
of life in Porto Rico would be more agreeable than 
those of Southern Florida. The present system of 
market gardening is not clearly indicative of the 
possibilities of the island. It is, however, a fair 
inference that if present results can be attained by 
present methods, the application of intelligent and 
careful methods under a systematic management 
would produce a far more desirable result. To such 
an improvement obstacles are presented in two di- 
rections. There is little to encourage a belief that 
the native people will be disposed to make a radical 
change in their nature and habits, and transform 
themselves from a lazy, easy-going, and, in the main, 



160 THE PORTO RICO OF TO-DAY 

idle people, into active and energetic workers. On 
the other hand, there is little encouragement for 
active and energetic workers to go to the island. 
Their success and prosperity would be too greatly 
dependent upon a sufficient general extension of 
special industries to offer much inducement for 
emigration. 

The raising of beef cattle may also be included 
among the possible industries. The breed already 
raised upon the island is of good quality, though 
of no more than an ordinary size. The average 
weight will probably be not far from eleven hundred 
to thirteen hundred pounds. Large areas in the in- 
terior could be utilized for cattle-raising, and there 
are tracts along the coast-lands which would be more 
readily available for this purpose than for any other. 
Pork and pork products are imported in important 
quantity, and there should be a promising opportu- 
nity for a limited number to engage in hog-raising. 
Range land in the interior could be obtained at rea- 
sonable prices and the animals turned loose upon it 
to feed on plantains and edible roots. Corn, for 
fattening, grows readily throughout the island. 

Of mechanical industry there is now little or noth- 
ing. It is doubtful if the local market is large 
enough to Avarrant any extensive industry in any 
line. Raw materials for almost any business would 



INDUSTEIAL POSSIBILITIES 161 

Lave to be imported, and the education of a race to 
persistent day in and day out labor, would be no 
simple matter. Most of the industry with which the 
native people have been at all acquainted, has been 
of a nature which permitted them to consult their 
personal inclinations to a considerable extent. The 
tones of the mandate which implies man's starvation 
if he will not Avork are but feebly heard in Porto 
Eico, and nature weakens the force of even so much 
of it as may be heard, by a lavish bounty which re- 
duces the necessity for work to its minimum. Even 
those who go to the island, either in search of a live- 
lihood or for fortune-making, will speedily fall into 
the ways of the place and, more or less consciously, 
adopt the local mahana as an object of worship. 
Porto Kico will be developed — some time, but its de- 
velopment is far from likely to proceed at a pace 
which will at all rival the growth of our Western 
States. If we must have outlying islands, Porto Eico 
is one of the best and most promising that could be 
had at all. 

Whatever may be the result of increased contact 
between these people and ourselves, however much or 
little they may adopt of American customs and hab- 
its in many things which are now widely different, 
one thing is quite certain, and that is that any settlers 
on the island will soon drop into the prevalent in- 



162 THE PORTO RICO OF TO-DAY 

dolence. It is in the air and in the life. For a time 
it is possible to fight it, but the conviction grows that 
ultimately one must yield to it, and accept mana- 
na as the law of life. It is not the intense heat, for, 
measured by the thermometer, the heat is not so 
very intense, and in most places it is tempered by a 
breeze which elsewhere would doubtless be refresh- 
ing. But it is hardly so there. The air is dull and 
heavy, and one grows listless. Physical exertion of 
any kind becomes a bore, and mental exertion be- 
comes almost an impossibility. How it would be if 
one could get a restful sleep I cannot say. I regret 
that I have not been able to try that. In the hotel 
sleeping-dungeon, one lies and stifles until he rouses 
in the morning, unrested and unrefreshed. The very 
necessary mosquito-canopy excludes any air which 
may be in circulation with the impenetrability of 
sheet-iron, while it is no more effective against mos- 
quitoes than a barbed-wire fence would be. One 
might in time become used to it all and find life there 
as pleasant as it is anywhere. But before he reaches 
that point he will land in the clutches of potent, 
implacable, irresistible manana. With an income, a 
comfortable home, and nothing to do, Porto Eico is 
on the borders of Lotus Land. 



XII 

COMMERCE ON THE ISLAND 

Ephemeral Trade— Problems for the Merchants— Arrival of the 
Commercial Army— Disappointed Speculators and Promoters — 
Local Productions — The Volume of Imports — The Export Trade 
— Porto Rican Business Methods — Influence of Tariflf— Outlook 
for Americans. 

For the first two or three weeks of our occupation 
of a part of the island, business was a secondary con- 
sideration. Everybody was having a kind of holiday, 
except the hundreds of laborers, truckmen, and boat- 
men, for whom our operations furnished abundant 
employment. The majority had their attention and 
interest divided by novel and stirring scenes. It was 
a time of excitement. Troops of cavalry, artillery, 
and infantry were coming and going in every direc- 
tion. The streets were filled with sight-seers, and 
business men stood in their shop-doors to watch the 
little military drama which was being played for their 
benefit. During this period certain lines of business 
experienced an unprecedented activity. The de- 
mand for eatables and for drinkables was some- 
thing beyond Porto Eican ideas. Pedlers of fruit, 

163 



164 THE PORTO EICO OF TO-DAY 

cakes, and liome-made confectionery (save the mark) 
appeared by the score. They came in swarms and 
droves. They pervaded the city and the camps. 
But that is not business. 

After the first days of turmoil things began to 
settle a little. Shoppers, soldiers and sailors, of- 
ficers and men, newspaper correspondents, and a few 
other civilians, filled the stores in search of curios 
and mementos, and for the purpose of replenishing 
wardrobes. That meant many sales and many pesos 
in Porto Eican cash-boxes. But even that was not 
business. It represented only a brief and temporary 
condition. The rush of it was soon over, and the 
dispersion of troops to other points left Porto Eico 
to settle still farther into its usual state. The set- 
tling process continued with the return of troops to the 
States, and matters rapidly dropped into the normal 
groove. Merchants looked over stocks depleted 
through several months of uncertain political and 
commercial conditions, and considered their replen- 
ishment. 

The first problem was the cheapest market in 
which to place their orders, and there came a trouble. 
The cheapest market to-day might be the dearest 
to-morrow. A merchant might place an order for 
domestics in Manchester, and an order for cutlery in 
Elberfold, only to find, upon the arrival of the goods, 



COMMERCE ON THE ISLAND 165 

that tlie wares which B, his neighbor, had ordered a 
few days later from New York enabled B to sell at 
less than A's cost price, with ample margin of profit 
to B. The gates to the Porto Rican merchant s mil- 
lennium were not immediately opened to him, and 
he groped in outer darkness, hoping for a ray of 
light, and grumbling at the new government which 
hid it from him. 

The question was one of tariff rates, and no man 
knew what would be done about them. For many 
weeks matters remained in this uncertain state, and 
there was much of serious complaint among the local 
merchants. They wanted goods and were quite 
ready to buy them, but the question of the proper 
market in which to make their purchases hinged on 
the action of the American Government. If Porto 
Rico were to be given a territorial form of government, 
with free exchange of commodities with the United 
States, American wares would present economic ad- 
vantages over goods from Europe. If some special 
arrangement were made for our new possessions, and 
a general tariff applied to all imports, the advantage, 
on some lines, would lie with European manufactures. 
Orders for goods were held back, and merchants felt 
that they were losing opportunities. 

This tariff question presented itself also as an im- 
pediment to the operations of American business 



166 THE PORTO RICO OF TO-DAY 

men. American commerce followed sharply upon 
the heels of the American army. Within two weeks 
of the military occupation of the island, a steamer 
arrived out bringing the advance guard of the com- 
mercial army. The first to land was the representa- 
tive of a large tobacco establishment. The second 
represented a brewery. On the same steamer came 
a little bunch of general prospectors, and a group of 
men interested in railway contracts. The tobacco 
man stayed, and the beer man stayed, and both did a 
fairly satisfactory business. The general prospec- 
tors talked much of the value of real estate and the 
possibility of speculation. Then they went home. 
The railroad men surveyed the situation from the 
stand-points of the Hotel Fran§ais and the Ponce 
plaza, and packed their grips for a return by the first 
steamer. The closing days of August brought other 
steamers. All carried as many passengers as their 
cabin accommodations would permit. Among them 
were a few whose aims were wholly legitimate and 
whose journey was warranted. Some of these were 
representatives of reliable houses who had come for 
general information regarding a market for their par- 
ticular wares. Few of them saw much encourage- 
ment, and most of them returned by the first boat 
they could catch. 

The great majority of the arrivals consisted of the 



COMMERCE ON THE ISLAND 167 

purely speculative element. Very many of them 
were young men who had just about enough money 
to get them out, to keep them on the island for a 
week or two, and to get them home again. Those 
who were wise went home as soon as they could. 
The prominence given to the island of Porto Rico 
during the early months of 1898, and much talk of 
its importance as a strategic point, and of its richness 
and fertility, would seem to have greatly magnified 
the spot in the minds of the general American public, 
both with regard to its area and its commercial im- 
portance. The long months of talking and planning 
for the invasion and conquest of the island, and the 
great army which it was proposed to send there ap- 
pear to have given a decidedly mistaken and exag- 
gerated idea regarding the entire situation. 

In comparative figures, Porto Eico is less than half 
the size of the State of New Jersey. It would take 
about fourteen Porto Ricos to cover the State of New 
York. Three Rhode Islands would cover Porto Rico 
and leave enough margin for a foot-path around it. 
Less than one hundred miles will measure its length, 
and less than forty miles, its width. We have but 
one or two States in the Union so densely populated 
as Porto Rico. Its average to the square mile ex- 
ceeds that of Connecticut, New York, or New Jersey, 
and far exceeds that of Ohio or Illinois. It is not a 



168 THE PORTO EICO OF TO-DAY 

wild, new country for commercial or speculative ex- 
ploitation. Its settlement antedates that of America. 
San Juan had been established for more than fifty 
years when Menendez built his fort at St. Augustine, 
and had seen twenty different governors of the island 
before Virginia Dare was born. 

Yet with all this comparative density of popula- 
tion, with all the richness of the soil of the island, 
with a people whose numbers are but a little less 
than those who make their homes in Brooklyn, the en- 
tire trade of the island, domestic and foreign, export 
and import, is less than that of many an American 
city with one-tenth of its number of inhabitants. A 
notable discrepancy arises in the figures given for the 
exports and imports. This is partly due to the difli- 
culty of obtaining accurate statistics, and partly to 
the complication of the terms " dollars " and " pesos." 
The terms are often made interchangeable, but the 
coins are not, except at variable rates of exchange 
which makes it difficult to convert the one into the 
other with any accuracy. In the following schedule, 
the values are represented in American dollars. 

The local trade in local products is chiefly con- 
fined to the morning market for table supplies, 
which is held in all the cities and larger towns. 
The total imports and exports hardly reach a gross 
amount of thirty millions of dollars a year, and the 



COMMERCE ON THE ISLAND 169 

imports exceed the exports by a couple of millions. 
I have been unable to find any statistics which I was 
willing to accept as wholly reliable. So far as I can 
learn, no complete report has been submitted by the 
United States consul, and there are discrepancies 
which I cannot reconcile in the published reports of 
the English consul and those of the Dutch consul. 
I can, therefore, only give figures which are approxi- 
mate, though they are sufiiciently close for general 
purposes. 

Cotton goods appear to be the largest item among 
the imports, and they represent a trade of two or 
three millions of dollars, varying from year to year, 
according to the prices and the success or failure of 
the crop products of the island. Kice is imported to 
the value of one and a half to two millions of dollars. 
Flour, chiefly from the United States, approximates 
three-quarters of a million dollars. Dried, salt, and 
pickled fish, of which Canada seems to obtain the 
lion's share of the trade, represents a million to a 
million and a quarter. The United States has the 
major portion of a trade in pork and pork products, 
which about equals the fish business. Woollen 
goods are, naturally, of but limited consumption in 
so warm a climate, and the trade is probably less 
than $150,000 in amount. Agricultural implements 
represent a business of three to four hundred thou- 



170 THE PORTO RICO OF TO-DAY 

sand dollars. Boots and shoes, almost exclusively 
from Spain, represent some five or six hundred thou- 
sand. Chinaware, glassware, lumber, coal, soap, fur- 
niture, and other articles of general use and con- 
sumption represent amounts varying from one to 
three or four hundred thousand dollars. 

The most astonishing thing in the whole list of 
importations is the item of vegetable and garden 
products. These are imported into that country, 
which is in itself but a natural garden, in which can 
and should be raised every form of vegetable neces- 
sary or desirable for consumption, and the annual 
value of the imports approximates $400,000, and the 
weight 7,000 tons. The island uses $150,000 worth 
of imported candles and $50,000 worth of imported 
butter yearly. It uses two to three hundred thou- 
sand dollars' worth of cheese, of which the Nether- 
lands have, for the last few years, furnished much 
the greater part. Uruguay and the Argentine supply 
it with one to three thousand tons of jerked beef 
annually. "Wine, beers, and liquors take something 
more than a half a million a year out of the country. 

Among Porto Bican exports coffee is the heaviest 
item. This reaches an average valuation of some 
$8,000,000 a year. Sugar ranks next, and approxi- 
mates three to four million dollars. Tobacco goes 
to the extent of some half a million, and molasses 



COMMERCE ON THE ISLAND 171 

touclies about the same figure. Hides, cattle, tim- 
ber, and fruit are represented in the list, but their 
value is comparatively inconsiderable. Guano, to 
the extent of half a million a year, appears in the 
reports for some years ; but I am unable to account 
for either the article or the amount. Some corn has 
been sent to Cuba, some native rum to Spain, and 
some bay rum to France and to the United States. 

It will thus be seen that, as yet, the island offers 
but a comparatively limited amount of business, 
either in buying or selling. 

The island is no place for those who go in the 
hope of picking up something to do. None but the 
capitalist, the investor, or the business man with 
money for his business should go to Porto Kico with 
anything more in view than an outing or a vacation. 
As things are at present, there is little enough to in- 
terest the capitalist or the investor. The man who 
is looking for a job should look for it at home ; his 
chances here are infinitely better than they are 
there. There is absolutely nothing for the position- 
hunter, for the clerk, or for the workman. In time 
there may be something, but it will be, at the least, 
many months before such opportunities are open, 
and even then they will be few. Until then the case 
is hopeless, and those who go will but do as their 
predecessors have done — come home again, poorer 



172 THE POETO EICO OF TO-DAY 

and wiser men. If a young man can afford to spend 
a couple of hundred dollars in the purchase of that 
particular form of wisdom, the opportunity is open 
to him there on the island. If he cannot afford it, 
he Avill do better not to risk it. 

Merchants will find little to do there, except to 
glean a certain amount of information of rather doubt- 
ful accuracy, until the question of tariff rates shall 
have been definitely settled. There is now nothing 
on which to base any plans or calculations for busi- 
ness operations. The native merchants are complain- 
ing seriously. They are waiting to place orders for 
hundreds of thousands of dollars* worth of goods, to 
replenish stocks which have been depleted through 
many months of uncertain trade conditions, and are 
losing business which they have been led to expect 
would be open to them almost immediately after the 
American occupation of the different cities in which 
they are located. Nor is it at all easy for an American 
to obtain any definite information or accurate details 
regarding any particular line of business and its pos- 
sibilities. Local commercial methods are not reduced 
to the system which prevails among American busi- 
ness men. The Porto Eican merchant buys and sells, 
but I failed to find evidence of that close study of 
business and business methods by which the Amer- 
ican merchant increases his trade and his profits. 




Home of the Peons. 



COMMEECE OIT THE ISLAND 173 

It would seem to tlie American tliat a few good 
American stores would be a benefit to the island and 
a profit to their proprietors. But it is to be remem- 
bered that these people have their own ideas, their 
own tastes, and their own customs, to which ours 
would be as foreign, and probably as unsatisfactory, 
as theirs are to us. They may prefer to buy their 
confectionery in a bar-room. They may prefer hag- 
gling over prices instead of being charged a definite 
and fixed price. They may regard windows in stores 
and in houses as an abomination. They are the ones 
most affected by those things, and not we. They are 
entirely satisfied with a small cup of coffee and a bit 
of dry bread in the morning, and with a midday 
lunch, called breakfast, which consists of the same 
things as the six or seven o'clock dinner, except that 
breakfast begins with a fried egg, and dinner with a 
plate of soup. 

Dry-goods stores are numerous and the stocks seem 
fairly good, though often they appear incougruous by 
their variety. One buys a yard of calico or a saddle, 
a mantilla or a machete, in the same store. " Who 
bringeth much brings something unto many," ssijs 
the prologue in " Faust." That would seem to be 
the idea of the Porto Kican city merchant. The 
druggist — and there are many druggists — confines his 
wares mainly to his particular line. The tailor may 



174 THE PORTO RICO OF TO-DAT 

or may not carry a line of shirts and hats. A few 
zapateria may sell only shoes, but many of those com- 
binations of dry-goods, hardware, crockery, and sad- 
dlery, carry also a line of shoes and slippers. The 
bakery (panaderia) may also sell cigars, cigarettes, 
and liquors, as may the purveyor of canned goods 
and delicatessen. 

There may be a system to it all, but the stranger 
cannot tell where he may find the thing he wants. In 
Ponce I bought a glass of milk, for consumption on 
the premises, and some cigarettes, at the same place 
at which I purchased sardines, guava jelly, and fresh 
eggs. In Yauco I purchased cigars at a store where 
I might have purchased pencils, ink, and school- 
books. In a store in Mayaguez I was offered foun- 
tain-pens, slippers, straw hats, children's toys, and 
furniture in the same establishment. If one wishes 
curios or souvenirs which are distinctive of the island, 
it is difficult to find them. Few things are manu- 
factured there. Straw hats of local construction are 
easily obtainable, but one does not care for straw 
hats for souvenirs. One is offered fans, mantillas, 
and that sort of things, made in Spain, but the same 
things can be had in New York at lower prices and 
in greater variety. 

A heavy percentage of the population consists of a 
class which buys but little. From my observations, 



COMMERCE ON THE ISLAND 175 

in both city and country, I should say there was little 
encouragement for dealers in boots and shoes. Men, 
women, and children, go barefooted. Barefooted 
they work in the fields. Barefooted they go along 
the roads and about the towns. Shoes are worn, of 
course. But neither in Ponce nor in Mayaguez, two 
of the three largest cities, is there a stock of boots and 
shoes in any one store which would be considered 
half a stock in an American city of half their size. 
In those I have seen there have been few goods of 
American manufacture. 

Much the same remarks are true as regards cloth- 
ing. The great majority of Porto Eicans do not 
burden themselves with garments, or with a vast 
assortment of them. An old hat, a ragged shirt, and 
a pair of dirty cotton or linen trousers, appear to 
constitute the entire outfit of most of those whom 
one meets in going about the country, and of a very 
noticeable proportion of those seen in the towns. 
Feminine apparel appears to be equally limited along 
its special line of construction. There is little to 
be said about juvenile apparel. Sometimes it con- 
sists of a rag; sometimes it does not. Hats are 
a local industry. The material used is some form 
of native grass, and a twenty-five cent hat will last 
a year or two. In house furnishing the same gen- 
eral condition obtains. Dwellings throughout the 



176 THE PORTO EICO OF TO-DAY 

country are of simple construction and simply fur- 
nished- 
There are many articles of American manufacture 
which, if tariff conditions will permit, ought to be 
successfully introduced into the Porto Eican market. 
But there would seem to be little chance for Amer- 
ican wholesale or retail stores. For the present, at 
least, little can be done. There must be some def- 
inite adjustment of the tariff question. The recog- 
nition, or even a tentative recognition, of Porto Eico 
as a part of the United States, would do much to 
solve many difficulties. It would give to merchants 
there a working basis. Commercially, there can be 
no question that the inclusion of the island as an 
integral part of the United States would be of mu- 
tual advantage. It would give to the people there 
a broader commercial life, and to us it would give 
the greater part of what market there is. If to the 
island is given some form of colonial government, 
with power to regTdate its own customs duties and 
taxes, its trade with the States on the American 
continent will be greatly restricted, with no resultant 
benefit to the people. It would also be placed in a 
political situation which I am weU convinced would 
be objectionable to the clearest thinking people of 
the island. They would prefer to be a spoke in the 
American wheel, rather than a fly upon its rim. 



COMMERCE ON THE ISLAND 177 

The free opening of ihe ports of the island to the 
entry of American goods would give ns practically 
the whole of their trade. Nor would this operate to 
the disadvantage of the people of the island. We 
must assume that there will be, in any event, a duty 
placed on imports from Europe. Free American 
goods versus European goods plus a necessary tar- 
iff, would economize the cost of living for the ma- 
jority if not for all. The Porto Rican merchant can 
now purchase domestics and sheetings, as he does, 
in Liverpool and Manchester, at a lower figure than 
he can in New York. An equal tariff on both would 
exclude the American article. The freedom of the 
port to the American product would put those goods 
on the retail market at lower prices than those at 
which they are now sold. The same applies to other 
lines which may be regarded as necessaries. The 
duty on flour has been enormous. Our trade in that 
article could be very greatly extended and advantage 
come to both parties. So also with some if not with 
all forms of paper : Paper bags for grocers and other 
merchants are a luxury there. They are so costly 
that they might almost be hung on the walls as 
ornaments. "We can place both flour and paper on 
the island with profit to ourselves and with advantage 
to the islanders. We can do many things with bene- 
ficial commercial results to ourselves and to them, 



178 THE PORTO EICO OF TO-DAY 

and the sooner we get the gates open the better it 
will be for both. 

Under wise laws and a just and equitable system 
of taxation, with a suitable railway system and im- 
proved highways, and with the ports of the United 
States and of the islands open to the exchange of 
commodities, free of duty, a very material increase of 
the business of the island will inevitably follow. It 
is quite possible to double the trade within the next 
ten or fifteen years. There will be some wild- cat 
speculation, some unwise investment, and some loss 
to investors. The schemer and the promoter will 
find victims who will put their money into companies 
whose future is wholly hopeless. But along with 
that there may reasonably be expected a steady 
growth and improvement. But it will come by 
gradual increase and development, and not by a sud- 
den bound. 

Eetail trade and local commerce are in the hands 
of men who understand it. They know the island 
people and their requirements. Their ways, ideas, 
and tastes, are not altogether like ours, but they will, 
for many years, be better suited for the business of 
the island. Here and there an American may find a 
promising opening, and some may find a profitable 
trade, but, in the main, the American will be handi- 
capped by his ignorance of the needs of the market 



COMMERCE ON THE ISLAND 179 

and the tastes of the people. Porto Eican merchants 
and Porto Eican people may not be up to our times, 
but they are up to their own, and they have their own 
pace in progress. This pace may now be somewhat 
accelerated, but efforts to force it unduly are not 
likely to meet with any marked success. 



XIII 

OLLA PODRIDA 

The Best Way to Travel on the Island— Sleeping Accommodations — 
Conservative Farmers — Food Staples of the Peasantry — The 
Temperature and Its Results — The Educational Question — Schools 
and School-houses of San Juan — Points of Interest — Pretty Girls 
—Cost of City Government— The " Color " Question— Porto 
Rican Homes. 

Would anyone go to Porto Kico for a novel ex- 
perience amid unfamiliar scenes in a strange land ? 
Let him take with him a limited supply of baggage, 
the less the better, within reasonable limits, but let 
him carry with him an unlimited supply of determi- 
nation to put up with whatever he gets. Would any 
one go for comfort ? Let him take with him his own 
hotel, and his own carriage and horses and driver. 
To one accustomed to the facilities, the conveniences, 
and the comforts of the modern American hotel, the 
Porto Eican affair, in which one eats and sleeps, if 
sleep he can, offers little beyond an opportunity to 
be uncomfortable. 

The Porto Eican may enjoy his life as keenly as 

does anyone, but it is after a manner of his own, and 

180 



OLLA PODRIDA 181 

that manner would be far from acceptable to the 
average right-minded American. There should be 
several moderate-sized fortunes lying around on the 
island for enterprising American bonifaces who will 
go there and erect modern hotels on American prin- 
ciples. They need not be palatial. The prime requi- 
site would be that they be provided with windows 
that will admit light and air. One is led to imagine 
that the Porto Rican has some bitter feud with both 
of those rather desirable provisions of nature, so 
diligently does he seek to exclude them from his 
buildings, and particularly from his sleeping-rooms. 

This applies equally to hotels and to dwelling- 
houses. I have been in many Porto Rican houses. 
I have been in the homes of the wealthy, in the dwell- 
ings of the middle classes, and in the huts of the 
indigent. I have seen but few rooms which had 
anything whatever that would recommend them as 
sleeping apartments. The salon and the dining- 
room may be spacious and airy. The bed-chamber 
will be a den in the most unsuitable corner, small, 
dark, and cheerless. There may be good reason for 
this. It is quite probable that the people of Porto 
Rico are better judges of what is good for them than 
any stranger could be. The night-air of the island 
is of doubtful wholesomeness. It may well be that, 
without stopping too closely to analyze his reasons, 



182 THE PORTO EICO OF TO-DAY 

the Porto Rican sleeps in wliat the average Ameri- 
can would regard as an air-tight box, for the purpose 
of avoiding a greater evil. That which to a stranger 
seems a serious discomfort, becomes an accustomed 
habit of life, and its discomfort is not noticed as it 
is by the stranger. To fevers arising from a night- 
air laden with more or less poisonous exhalations 
from the rank growth of tropical vegetation one be- 
comes less readily accustomed. 

For the exclusion of light there is less apparent 
reason. It is true that the admission of light means 
also the admission of some measure of heat. Any in- 
crease in temperature is unnecessary, and any means 
of reducing it is not without its advantages. It is 
possible also that the cause of the infrequent use of 
glass runs back to a time when glass was an article of 
such costliness that its use was practically prohib- 
ited. Conservatism is a marked trait of the island 
people, and the custom of using wooden shutters in 
the place of windows may be an inheritance from 
many generations. 

This same conservatism manifests itself in many 
of the habits and customs of the Porto Pdcans. Our 
working oxen are attached to their load so that the 
strain comes upon the neck and shoulder, where it 
is supported and backed by the weight of the whole 
body. In Porto Eico the attachment is made to the 



OLLA PODRIDA 183 

base of the horns, the pull coming from the neck and 
the head, after the manner of the ancient Egyptians. 
Perhaps from habit, though possibly from other 
causes, the average Porto Eican farmer ploughs with 
a pointed stick. The trunk of a small tree of suitable 
length and diameter forms the beam, which is at- 
tached to the yoke at its outer end. At its inner 
end, adjusted at a proper angle, a strong connection 
is made with another piece of timber which, by its 
length and position, serves both as share for cutting 
and handle for guiding. Some American ploughs are 
in the market, but thus far they have not found a 
read}^ sale. The island methods of cooking are also 
primitive from an American stand-point, though they 
are doubtless better adapted to the needs and the 
conditions of the island than the American contriv- 
ances would be. 

It is to be remembered that the majority of the 
islanders ar§ of the peasant class. Their wants are 
few and simple. Their incomes do not admit any 
elaborate table supply. Many of them live at a con- 
siderable distance from any market, and many ar- 
ticles of table consumption cannot be kept for any 
length of time in so hot a country. Nor is there 
necessity for the hearty food which is required by 
those of a more northern climate. What corn-bread 
is to the poorer classes of our Southern States, the 



184 THE POKTO KICO OF TO-DAY 

plantain is to many of the Porto Eican peasantry. 
It forms the staple diet of many people. It is 
cooked by boiling, roasting in ashes, or by frying. 
No American pattern of kitchen-stove is needed for 
that purpose. The same obtains with rice and beans, 
both of which figure largely in the Porto Eican bill 
of fare. In the homes of probably the majority of 
the people of the island, the American cooking-stove 
would be only a super-heated nuisance. A goodly 
number of dwellers in the cities might well find the 
American kerosene-stove a desirable substitute for 
the little metal basket of charcoal which is now the 
usual means of cooking, and the same implement 
should find some sale through the country. 

Aside from any other questions which may affect 
the menu of Porto Eican households, that of the 
avoidance of any unnecessary heat is one of no little 
importance. Nature supplies all the caloric that is 
really required, and the production of- any greater 
heat than is absolutely necessary for simple forms of 
cookery is to add unduly to physical discomfort 
within the house. The climate of Porto Eico is not 
easily described, though all who write with reference 
to the island are supposed to say something about it. 
The weather bureau which has been established by 
the American authorities since our occupation of the 
island, will do much to simplify the process of de- 



OLLA PODRIDA 185 

scrip tion of climatic conditions. One will now be 
able to quote statistics from the weather reports in- 
stead of attempting to describe his personal sensa- 
tions. 

It is quite safe to start a Porto Kico weather 
story with the proposition that it is never cold in 
Porto Eico. A citizen of Ponce, whose English was 
somewhat limited, said to me, " We never change our 
clothes in Porto Kico." He did not mean exactly 
what he said, but he was probably correct in his 
meaning that the same weight and kind of clothing 
could be worn the year around with entire comfort. 
I question if an overcoat could be bought anywhere 
on the island. So far as I was able to learn there is 
never a time when even a light top-coat is either 
necessary or desirable. High up among the hills the 
thermometer sometimes gets down into the fifties, 
but even that is unusual. The lowest temperature 
recorded in San Juan within twenty years, is given 
by Mr. Hill, in his recently published volume on 
" Cuba and Porto Eico," as 57.2°. 

It is the upper end of the thermometer which has 
the most work to do. There is more wear and tear 
on the tube between 75° and 95° than on any other 
portion of its length. It is not often that the mer- 
cury goes above 95°, and that is not reached on 
many days in the year. Eighty to 90° is the usual 



186 THE PORTO EICO OF TO-DAY 

run for tlie summer months, with an average drop of 
six or seven degrees for the remaining months. The 
temperature of the island is remarkably equable. 
The heat, throughout the greater part of the year, is 
tempered by the ocean breezes from the northeast. 
During what are our winter months, this wind swings 
around into the north. But the breeze is constant. 
Naturally the heat is great in the direct rays of the 
sun, but the large area of our own Southern States is 
open to the same criticism. It is always advisable 
to avoid either work or exposure at midday. That 
is the practice of the native people. In the larger 
places many of the stores are closed during the noon 
hours, and commercial Porto Eico takes advantago 
of the general quiet to go home to its breakfast. 

Nature is really a very kindly old dame, after all. 
Just as she usually interposes the relief of uncon- 
sciousness when a certain measure of pain is reached 
by a sufferer, so, too, in countries where more than a 
certain degree of active physical exercise becomes in- 
jurious, she interposes a disinclination for exercise. 
Speaking perhaps more exactly, in hot climates she 
makes men lazy. That is one of her wise provisions 
for the benefit of the human race. Along with this 
disinclination for energetic work, she pours out a lav- 
ish bounty which makes energetic work quite needless. 
It is not so much the excessive heat of Porto Eico 



OLLA PODRIDA 187 

that affects one's natural energy. Nor is it that the 
heat is especially trying, physically. The result is 
due rather to its continuity and to its character. 
There are hotter days in New York and in Washing- 
ton than those which come to Ponce and to San 
Juan. But, with the exception of occasional brief 
periods, our northern nights are cooler, and they 
bring a relief which does not come to the cities of 
the island. There is also an indescribable difference 
in the character of the heat. Porto Eican heat saps 
the energies, both physical and mental. The physi- 
cal disinclination is accompanied by a mental indif- 
ference. It is a beautiful country in which to have 
a large and airy house with broad, shaded verandas, 
where one can swing in a hammock and read inter- 
esting novels and smoke a pipe, if he has a servant 
to fill the pipe. Otherwise he will smoke cigarettes, 
as the natives do, because it is so much less work to 
light a cigarette than it is to fill a pipe. 

For the reading - matter which one might need 
under such charmingly lazy conditions, it would be 
quite necessary to depend wholly upon a home sup- 
ply. The island is not a literary centre. A few in- 
significant book-shops may be found in some of the 
larger cities, but the assortment carried is small, and 
consists mainly of Spanish novels, with a scattering 
mixture of French productions. A few bulky vol- 



188 THE POETO EICO OF TO-DAY 

Times of statistics and reports are also obtainable, as 
are sundry volumes of history. San Juan lias a 
small public library. But the Porto Eicans gener- 
ally are not a reading people. Illiteracy is a well- 
pronounced epidemic. The census of 1887 gives the 
following table : 

Male. Female. Total. 

Able to read and write 57,216 39,651 96,867 

Able to read only 5,663 8,851 14,513 

Unable to read or write 341,409 353,919 695,328 

404,287 402,421 806,708 

This shows, broadly, eighty-six per cent, of the 
population as wholly illiterate, with twelve per cent, 
able to read and write and two per cent, able to 
read only. Such statements as this, however, need 
a measure of qualification. The 806,708, given 
as the population, includes all ages from the newly 
born infant, upward. Some percentage of these, 
such as those under school-age, should be excepted 
from estimates, and percentages be based on the re- 
maining number, including only those for whom 
reading and writing are a possibility. Such a state- 
ment could probably be obtained from a complete 
census report. 

The United States authorities give twenty per cent, 
as the proportion of children of school-age in the en- 
tire population. Assuming this figure as sufiiciently 



OLLA PODEIDA 189 

accurate for general purposes in other lands, we 
should find 161,340 as the number of Porto Eican 
children of school age. The public provision for the 
education of these includes not far from four hun- 
dred and fifty school buildings, or about one for each 
four hundred pupils. But this also needs some quali- 
fication. Private schools and private instruction are 
factors in the general question. There is also the 
fact of variation in localities. For instance, the city 
of San Juan is better equipped than some of the 
rural districts. The same will apply to others of the 
larger centres. In the fiscal report of San Juan for 
the year 1897, there are entries of payments made as 
follows : For one male and one female teacher for the 
EsGuelas superiores, the sum of 1,500 pesos each ; for 
one male and one female assistant for the same 
schools, the sum of 540 pesos each ; for six male and 
six female teachers of the first class for the Escuelas 
Ilunicipales, the sum of 720 pesos each ; for one male 
and one female teacher of the second class, the sum 
of 540 pesos each. 

Assuming the population of San Juan at the pres- 
ent time to be 25,000, which is not far out of the way, 
and taking twenty per cent, as the relative proportion 
of children of school age, we find a school-age popu- 
lation of 5,000. For the education of these, payments 
are made to eighteen teachers, or one teacher for 



190 THE POETO EICO OF TO-DAY 

eacli two hundred and seventy-seven pupils. This 
estimate, and others of similar character made from 
the reports of other cities and towns, would indicate 
that some of the teachers in the country districts are 
in charge of some very large schools if all the pos- 
sible scholars of their districts are duly attentive to 
the opportunities presented for an education. From 
other entries in the San Juan fiscal report, I infer 
that each of these eighteen teachers is provided with 
a separate school building, and I infer also that the 
buildings are not owned by the city, but are rented 
from private owners. The terms used are Asignacion 
para alquila de casas, etc., or, practically, " appropria- 
tion for renting of houses," etc. The sum paid for 
the rental of twelve buildings for the municipal 
schools of the first class, is 4,320 pesos, or 360 
pesos for each. The peso is worth from fifty to 
sixty cents in our money, according to the local 
rate of exchange. It is wholly evident that there 
is some room for educational reform on our new 
island. 

Of all the special points of interest on the island, 
San Juan naturally presents the strongest attractions. 
Although the small town of Aguada, on the west 
coast, is perhaps the successful rival of San Juan in 
point of priority of establishment, the capital city 
was the more important place even in the year 1511, 



Looking Westward from Fort San Cristobal— Morro in tlic Distance. 




Looking Eastward from Morro — San Cristobal in the Distance. 



OLLA PODEIDA 191 

wliich is the date claimed by both as the time of their 
founding. San Juan was the head-quarters, if not the 
home, of Ponce de Leon during the brief time of his 
governorship of the island. A portion of the gov- 
ernment building known as the Casa Blanca — the 
"White House," is shown as the house which that 
doughty hero occupied during his stay on the island. 
The massive forts and the extensive fortifications of 
the city are full of interest for travellers. The Morro 
and Cristobal are a mine of wealth for the photog- 
rapher with an eye for the artistic. But, at the 
present time, those who enter there leave their cam- 
eras behind — with the sentinel at the gateway. 
Uncle Sam does not approve the photographing of 
the interiors of his coast defences. 

Aside from the fortifications and their immediate 
surroundings one can see the city of San Juan in a 
very few minutes. But, like all other places, one 
may study indefinitely. I am unable to comment 
upon the life of the city, because of the abnormal 
conditions which existed at the time of my visit. All 
was in a state of suspense. The commission was in 
sitting, preparing the terms and time of the evacua- 
tion, and Spanish troops were being assembled for 
their departure for the Peninsula. The time, in it- 
self, was deeply interesting, but it gave no adequate 
idea of the real social or commercial life of the place. 



192 THE POETO EICO OF TO-DAY 

More even tlian is customary, the ladies of tlie city 
remained in seclusion. 

I have been asked by a number of frivolous young 
persons of both sexes if I saw any of those delightful 
creations known as "pretty girls," on the island. I 
have been obliged to confess that I saw but few 
such, though I have asserted a very positive convic- 
tion that they are to be found there in great numbers. 
I can at least testify to three in one family of my 
acquaintance, and can make oath to their powers of 
delightful entertainment. I have no reason to think 
that this trio monopolized the beauty of the young 
ladies of the island, but they surely had enough to 
give to many who needed it, and still have enough 
left to warrant any observer in pronouncing them 
beautiful. I met and saw a few others, but the prin- 
cipal supply of them was concealed by wooden blinds 
and shutters. 

Information, of its particular kind, is found in the 
fiscal report of the city. The salary of the alcalde is 
2,500 pesos per annum. The police force consists of 
two officers and forty-four guards. The pay of the 
guards is 360 pesos per annum, a sum equivalent to 
about two hundred dollars of our money. The city 
possesses a steam fire-engine for which, fortunately, 
there is little necessity. The engine is drawn by 
oxen, and its rush to a conflagration is quite devoid 



OLLA PODEIDA 193 

of that tlirill of excitement which is caused by the 
plunging gallop of an American fire-department team. 
The idea of the oxen probably comes from the fact 
that there is hardly enough work to do to make it 
profitable to maintain a stable of large horses, while 
the little island ponies would never do at all. The 
municipality is lighted by five hundred electric lights 
at a cost of thirty-six pesos a year for each light. 
Street cleaning costs 5,000 pesos per year. The total 
expenses for the year 1897 are classified as follows : 

Peeos. 

City officials 24,417 

Police Department 17,485 

Fire Department, Lighting, Street Cleaning, etc.. 49,360 

Public Instruction 27,660 

Public Works 6,550 

Public Correction 26, 351 

Interest account, etc 120, 635 

City Improvements, including new water-works.. . 249,163 
Municipal Charities, including Hospitals, Free 

Medical Service, etc 28,962 

Special Appropriation 3,000 

Total 598,483 

Some exjDlanation is needed here regarding the 
item which occurs in this statement, under the head 
of Interest Account. That implies a debt, and it was 
claimed by citizens that neither the island nor its 



194 THE PORTO KICO OF TO-DAr 

cities carried any bonded indebtedness. A distinc- 
tion appears to be made between borrowed money 
and bonded debt. For various publi ^ improvements, 
such as water- works, etc., the municipality of San 
Juan has borrowed money from the banks. But the 
amount is so inconsiderable, and the resources of the 
city so ample, that comparatively little importance is 
attached to it. The same may also be true of other 
cities. 

A problem of no little difficulty is presented in the 
determination of the population of the island along 
its lines of race and color. The census of 1887 gives 
the following table : 

Blancos (white) 480,267 

Pardos (gray) 248,690 

Morenos (brown or swarthy) 77,751 

Total 806,708 

These figures are of somewhat doubtful accuracy. 
It has been the custom of Spanish officials to mis- 
represent the relative numbers of whites and blacks 
in the Spanish colonies and dependencies, and there 
is some reason for belief that Porto Rico has not 
been excepted from this custom. It is, however, a 
fact that Porto Rico is unique among the West Ind- 
ian islands, in the numerical excess of whites over 
black in its population. The above list is probably 



OLLA PODEIDA 195 

in error in that it includes among the " blancos " a 
greater or less number whom we in America would 
regard as "colored," because of some indication of 
African blood, whether or not that were the source 
from which the color was derived. Those whites 
whose whiteness would ever be mistaken for that of 
the Anglo-Saxon, are not numerous on the island. 
" White," from the Spanish stand-point, includes 
many of those of that color with which all are familiar 
in the faces of some Spaniards, and many "West Ind- 
ians whose veins carry no drop of negro blood. The 
group indicated as " pardos " includes those whom 
we should class as *' mulattos," while we should 
probably group the " morenos " with the " blacks." 
The census list enumerates no " blacks," yet there 
are such on the island in noticeable numbers. Eace 
lines are drawn to some extent, socially; but race 
lines, as we know them in America, can hardly be 
said to exist. 

A more hospitable people than our new citizens 
is not to be found. There is a hesitancy about ex- 
tending promiscuous invitations to newly made ac- 
quaintances to visit them in their homes. But when 
the invitation does come, it comes heartily, and it is 
heartily supported by the entertainment which lies 
behind it. Porto Rican homes may strike the Amer- 
ican visitor as bare and inartistic. He may miss 



196 THE PORTO EICO OF TO-DAY 

the rugs, the portieres, the pictures, and many of 
the fanciful trifles to which we are accustomed in 
this country. But their absence is due largely to 
other reasons than the lack of a developed artistic 
taste. Bugs and fabrics of other kinds are encourag- 
ing breeding-places for that prolific denizen of all 
tropical countries, the pulex irritans. There is a cool- 
ness in tinted and white walls, and in wooden and 
wicker chairs, which is, in such a country, a mani- 
fest advantage over the hot stuflaness of upholstery. 
If one visits his friends only to see their houses, he 
may not be wholly pleased with his visits to Porto 
Kican homes. If he goes to meet the people, he will 
find them charming, and their home-life delightful. 



XIV 

THE CAMPAIGN ON THE ISLAND 

Military Skill vs. the " Dispensations of Providence " — The Plan 
of the Porto Rico Campaign— A Unique Expedition— General 
Schwan's Sweep to the West — Difference in American and Span- 
ish Methods in Warfare — Discomforts of a Tropical Campaign — 
An Unwritten Story — Our Insignificant Casualties. 

General Shafter's argument concerning the San- 
tiago campaign, is the only argument of the whole 
of the military operations of the Spanish -American 
engagement of 1898 : We won. We forced our op- 
ponent to surrender the territory which she had 
held for centuries. Our navy has commanded the 
plaudits of the world. Our War Department has 
merited a sharper criticism and a heavier penalty 
than is likely to fall upon it. Our military opera- 
tions, in camp or in field, have brought us little credit 
excepting that which lies in the fact that we won. 
Of military skill, of able strategy, of well-conceived 
and well executed plan, we have little to boast. The 
admission is humiliating, but it is the truth. Again 
and again, I have heard from the lips of officers of 

our regular army the words, ^' Surely the Lord has 

197 



198 THE PORTO EICO OF TO-DAY 

been on our side." Probably this has come from no 
religious desire to give honor to the " Lord of Hosts." 
It has come rather as the official testimony of ex- 
perts that our military victories have been chiefly due 
to something other than the wisdom and skill of our 
military leaders. Politics have dominated where mil- 
itary science should have ruled supreme. Incom- 
petent and inexperienced civilians have been ap- 
pointed to positions which demanded the services of 
trained and qualified men, and the operations of the 
line have been obstructed by the blunders and tan- 
gles of the staff service. 

Out of all this unsavory mass of mismanagement, 
with its train of unnecessary hardship and sickness, 
it is pleasant to find even one little incident which 
cannot be justly criticised. It occurred during the 
campaign in Porto Bico, and, through a somewhat 
unusual occurrence, little of public attention has 
been called to it. 

By one of those mysterious dispensations for 
which it is difficult to account, the only one of the 
four expeditions which started across the island of 
Porto Rico, and met with any special degree of suc- 
cess, was unaccompanied by any regular newspaper 
correspondent. At the time of this movement all of 
the correspondents then on the island were engaged 
in watching operations which seemed to be of much 



THE CAMPAIGN ON THE ISLAND 199 

greater importance than tliat little sweep of a few 
troops around the western part of the island. 

It was a small expedition, composed of regulars 
and commanded by a regular army officer, Brigadier- 
General Schwan. General Brooke, General Henry, 
and General Wilson were in command of the other 
expeditions, and it was assumed, from the number of 
their forces and from the routes which they were to 
follow, that any of these presented opportunities for 
more interesting and more important news-matter 
than did that of General Schwan with his little bunch 
of regulars. That was where an opportunity was 
lost. As an important and interesting campaign, 
none of the others even rivalled Schwan's move 
around the western coast. No one of the others met 
with such success. No one of them saw so much of 
active service. No one covered so much territory, or 
covered so much in so short a time. No one raised 
the American flag in so many towns and cities. 

General Henry was sent across the island, from 
Ponce, almost due northward to Arecibo. His com- 
mand was a small one, and it went into a country 
which had already been opened up by General Stone 
and the Engineer and Signal Corps, which had en- 
tered Adjuntas and Utuado, and was even then on 
the outskirts of Arecibo, on the northern coast. 
Some importance seemed to be given to this expe- 



200 THE PORTO RICO OF TO-DAY 

dition by rumors that the general-in-chief would fol- 
low that route and enter San Juan by the way of 
Arecibo. General Brooke had landed at Arroyo, and 
was holding that^place and Guayama, and was pre- 
paring for his move upon the rear of the Spanish 
forces which were said to be behind strong entrench- 
ments at Aibonito. General Wilson commanded 
what was plainly intended to be the main expedition 
to San Juan until, by his junction with General 
Brooke at Aibonito, the command of both expedi- 
tions, which would then be formed into one army, 
would devolve upon General Brooke, the ranking 
officer, and the commanding officer of the corps in 
which General Wilson commanded a division. There 
was no doubt that this double expedition constituted 
the focal point in the campaign, and that Aibonito 
was regarded as the locality of a decisive battle. It 
was known that the Spanish troops were there, and 
that they were making their position into a sort of 
modern little Thermopylse. 

But the army delayed at Guayama. It was said 
that they were waiting for supplies which could not 
be unloaded because of rough water and scarcity of 
lighters. There were supplies at Ponce and a road of 
forty miles, bad, but passable under military neces- 
sity, from that point to Guayama. It was said that 
they were waiting for artillery which was on board 



THE CAMPAIGN ON THE ISLAND 201 

the Massachusetts, then lying stranded on a reef, 
while all the available vessels and lighters in the 
harbor of Ponce were working their hardest to un- 
load her and drag her off before she was pounded to 
pieces. If artillery was wanted, there were two 
batteries of the Seventh Regulars, Lemly's and 
McComb's, in camp at Ponce. They were equipped 
with the new pattern, smokeless-powder guns, and 
neither of them fired a shot, and neither was sent 
where it could fire a shot throughout the campaign. 

With the Mayaguez expedition under General 
Schwan, the case was different. He got ready and 
started out. The force consisted of about thirteen 
hundred regulars of the Eleventh Infantry, two bat- 
teries of regular artillery, and one troop of regular 
cavalry. It was to make a general sweep of the west 
coast and the country behind it, eastward to the 
route taken by General Henry. 

Some of the troops had been landed at Guanica 
and some at Ponce. A junction was effected at 
Yauco, and the whole started on its westward trip as 
an independent expedition. It possessed one or two 
peculiarities. A brigadier-general commanded what 
was barely more than a single regiment. It included 
all three arms of the service, which was wholly cor- 
rect, though its artillery detachment was entirely out 
of all proportion to the infantry. A platoon of two 



202 THE POETO RICO OF TO-DAY 

guns is all tlie artillery wliich is usually supposed to 
accompany a regiment of infantry, though the point 
is necessarily elastic and dependent upon general 
conditions. As a matter of fact, a single platoon was 
all that did any service on this trip. 

The command started in a very business-like way, 
and appears to have kept up that attitude through- 
out its course. It was accompanied by its wagon- 
train, and it kept moving. Beyond Yauco it was the 
first in the field. In front of it was a force which 
was its numerical equal, if not its superior. It occu- 
pied Sabana Grande and San German practically 
without opposition. Sabana Grande is the centre of 
a municipal jurisdiction which includes a population 
of 9,000 or 10,000. San German is a city of 8,000, 
with a jurisdiction covering 30,000. About six miles 
beyond San German, midway between that place 
and Mayaguez, the troops encountered their first real 
opposition. At that point, a mile or so to the north- 
ward of the main highway, there stands the village of 
Hormigueros, a small town upon the hill-side. Here 
an engagement took place. It was short and sharp. 
The Spanish force had every advantage of position, 
and had known of the approach of the American 
force in ample time to give it full opportunity to 
make its position a strong one. The rolling foot- 
hills of the western end of the island's central range, 



THE CAMPAIGN ON THE ISLAND 203 

presented all that an army of defence could ask in 
the way of strategic situation. But the army of 
Spain stayed not for defences. It fired a few volleys, 
rose, scattered, and fled like a flock of quail. It had 
encountered something quite new to its military ex- 
perience. It did not understand men who followed 
at a run the bullets they had fired. They did not 
approve an opponent who fired as he advanced, and 
advanced as he fired, but always advanced. "While it 
is hardly the correct expression, courtesy suggests 
that we say that they " retired," they " fell back." 
They did fall back, and fell over each other in doing 
so. The Americans followed them. 

Mayaguez was occupied practically without re- 
sistance, and the army pushed on toward Aguadilla 
and Lares. Afiasco was occupied, and Aguada was 
virtually occupied. The Spanish troops fell back 
toward Lares, with the Americans in hot pursuit. 
They were overtaken on the banks of a river near 
Las Marias, and a rather snappy little engagement 
took place. General Schwan's report, I think, gave 
the Spanish loss as five killed and fourteen wounded. 
He told me that later reports received from those 
who came in and from those who were brought in, 
assured him that the losses from the American firing 
and from death by drowning in crossing the river, 
were very many times the number reported. Las 



204 THE POETO EICO OF TO-DAY 

Marias was occupied, and the troops pnslied onward 
toward Lares and toward Aguadilla. Then came the 
truce. Another twenty-four hours would undoubt- 
edly have found General Schwan in possession of 
both places, and in control of all the western part of 
the island. Both places had been practically evacu- 
ated. The American losses throughout the whole 
campaign amounted to two men killed and one officer 
and seventeen men wounded. 

It was not a grand campaign. It was not an affair 
of which a thrilling history could be written. It oc- 
cupied barely more than a week. But it was well- 
planned and well executed, and only came short of 
complete success through the proclamation of the 
armistice before it was possible to cover the whole 
territory. But it was not a picnic. The hospital 
records will show that. Of the dangers and hard- 
ships of such a march it is difficult to obtain an ade- 
quate idea without some practical knowledge of the 
conditions under which it was made. Nor were the 
troops imduly crowded forward. There was no dis- 
regard of life or health. The hardships were only 
the inevitable attendants of the conditions. If the 
march was to be made at all, it could only be made 
as it was made. 

To understand what it means to march through 
drenching rains, and under broiling sun, sleeping at 



THE CAMPAIGIT ON THE ISLAND 205 

niglit on damp ground and under heavy dews, one 
needs to try a little of it. I had a very little of it 
one day, and got all I wanted, when I accompanied a 
little bunch of the Engineer Corps on a trip across 
the hills for about eighteen miles. It was not a very 
bad day either, though we came through a half-dozen 
mountain showers, which, as I had lost my rain coat 
the day before, turned me, body and clothing, into a 
soaked and saturated pulp. I became rather more 
than a "demned, damp, moist, unpleasant body." 
Most of the men had their ponchos, but they are a 
sorry protection against such storms. Then the 
hot sun would come out and turn everything into a 
steam-bath with an apparent temperature of several 
thousand degrees. But I was better off than my 
companions, for I had a horse to which I could re- 
sort if I saw fit, though I was very glad to use him 
for the benefit of some of the boys, who were limping 
and hobbling painfully along with blistered feet in 
worn-out shoes. I saw enough of it, however, to 
understand fairly well what that sort of thing means. 
The merit of the Mayaguez expedition lies in the 
prompt and business-like way in which it was carried 
out, in the pluck and the hardihood displayed by the 
troops who were engaged in it, in the valor shown in 
such encounters with the enemy as came in their 
way, and in their patient endurance of hardship and 



206 THE PORTO EICO OF TO-DAY 

discomfort. Honor lies with these men of our regular 
army, with the Eleventh Eegiment of Infantry, with 
Troop A of the Fifth Cavahy, with C Battery of the 
Third and D Battery of the Fifth Artillery. It would 
also seem fitting that, if there be any stars going as 
rewards of merit for services during the campaign in 
Porto Rico, a pair of them be presented to Brigadier- 
General Schwan, the commander of the expedition in 
the western part of the island, and thus enable that 
ofl&cer to round out a career of nearly forty years of 
service in the United States army, from a private in 
the ranks upward, as a major-general. 

The great story of the Porto Rico campaign has 
not yet been written. It is possible that it may 
never be written. In view of the outcome of the 
Porto Rican affair, it is possible that the incident 
which, in all probability, would have constituted the 
vital feature of it all, loses its significance and be- 
comes a mere matter of detail, interesting only to 
military specialists. It would be work for an expert 
in military science who was well up in the history of 
war and warfare. This unwritten story might well 
bear the title, "Would we have been whipped at 
Aibonito ? " 

I have alluded to the position as that of a modern 
Thermopylae. It perhaps more nearly resembled 
Plevna, with Spaniards for Turks, and Americans for 



:''.r'^ 





THE CAMPAIGN OIT THE ISLAND 207 

Kussians. When the American officer called upon 
the Spaniards to surrender upon that somewhat time- 
worn ground of avoidance of bloodshed, the Spanish 
leader was not wholly without warrant in replying 
that if the Americans wished to avoid bloodshed, 
they would give over their attempt to force the 
passes to Aibonito and Cayey. Those are not his 
exact words, but they contain the meaning of his 
message. As the fight did not come off, we may 
bluster as we will about what we would have done if 
it had come off. The opening attack of General 
Wilson's division on the main road was more of 
a failure than a success. There are those who were 
in the line on the Guayama road who do not hesi- 
tate to say that had the engagement proceeded in- 
stead of being stopped by the arrival of the news 
of the protocol, the casualties would have been terri- 
ble and defeat a probability. 

It is probable that the situation was correctly 
summed up by an officer whose opinion I asked con- 
cerning it. He was wholly familiar with the ground, 
and as he wore a star upon his shoulder-straps, his 
opinion was not that of a novice. His reply to my 
question, whether we could have carried the pass, 
was both concise and comprehensive. " Yes," he 
said, "we could — in time." 

General Schwan's unique little expedition scored 



208 THE POETO EICO OF TO-DAY 

an unqualified success. General Henry's expedition 
did nothing that would have received six lines in the 
newspapers during the Civil War. General Wilson's 
division executed a clever movement on a small scale 
at Coamo. General Brooke's division did a very small 
amount of miniature warfare at Guayama. But none 
of it was real war, as we understand the term from 
such experiences as the Civil War, the Franco-Prus- 
sian, the Eusso-Turkish, and the Crimean. In a 
three weeks' campaign, during which a dozen engage- 
ments were reported, our total casualties amounted 
to three men killed, and four officers and thirty-six 
men wounded. 

Of the discomfort, privations, and sufferings of our 
troops the story has been fully told in the newspa- 
pers. Much of this was wholly unavoidable, though 
very much might have been prevented or modified 
by a more efficient staff service, and by the properly 
systematized organization of such an expedition. 
But, as General Shafter says of the Santiago cam- 
paign, so may we say of the Porto Eican : We won. 



XV 

UNDER THE OLD REGIME 

Exaggerated Idea of Spanish Oppression— Heavily Taxed, but Virtually 
Free from Debt— A Citizen's Complaints— A Nineteenth Century 
Inquisition — Taxes for Special Purposes — Annexation Preferred 
to Autonomy — The Hope of the People. 

" What everybody believes must be true " is a 
sweeping proposition. It is too sweeping to be ac- 
cepted at its full value. One of the things which 
*' everybody believes " is that Spanish domination in 
Porto Kico, like Spanish rule elsewhere, came little 
short of being intolerable. Americans have heard 
much of misrule, oppression, cruelty, and burdensome 
taxation. We have heard so much of it, and have 
heard so little in contradiction, that we have come to 
a general acceptance of almost anything that might 
be said in condemnation of the Spanish Government 
in Porto Eico and elsewhere. 

It is not my purpose to essay any whitewashing of 
Spanish colonial government. Its follies and its mis- 
deeds stain too deeply the pages of its history for 

any apologies or any whitewashing process. But it 

209 



210 THE PORTO EICO OF TO-DAY 

is possible that we have been misled into an exagger- 
ated idea of the extent of Spain's crimes. Through- 
out my experience in Porto Eico, I kept in mind this 
question of Spanish oppression on the island. I 
heard endless complaints from the island people. 
But they were, with few exceptions, general and not 
specific. This led me to some deeper probing. The 
outcome was the opinion that the Porto Eican has 
his story of wrongs, real and imaginary ; the Span- 
iard and the Spanish sympathizer have their opin- 
ions ; and the only thing which appears to be reason- 
ably certain in the matter is that the views of all 
classes will be magnified, each from its special point. 
From the most reliable channels of information 
which have been open to me — and some of them are 
quite unimpeachable — I can only conclude that the 
system of Spanish government in Porto Eico, taken as 
a system, was admirably constructed. Its laws were 
adequate and were, in the main, just and equitable. 
From those who know something of these laws I 
hear no complaint of the laws themselves. The 
trouble, then, must be in the abuse of the law by un- 
scrupulous officials. There is one point which is 
strikingly unique, and for which some credit seems 
to be due to the Spaniard. Whether it be that the 
laws make such a thing impossible, or to whatever 
cause the condition is attributable, I believe that I 



UI^DER THE OLD EEGIMB 211 

am correct in saying that Porto Kico, both as a whole, 
and in the districts and the municipalities which con- 
stitute that whole, has no bonded indebtedness. I 
can learn of none in any part of the island, and the 
people tell me there is none. Taxes may have been 
excessive and they may have been unjust, but in 
view of the absence of city and general bonded in- 
debtedness, it is but just to the Spaniards to admit 
that they have not " worked the island for all it was 
worth." Its 3,600 square miles of rich, fertile soil ; 
its populous districts, and its well-to-do little cities 
and towns, would each and all of them have been 
capable of carrying a bonded indebtedness whose 
principal might have gone "where it would do the 
most good." 

But the charges are direct of oppression and of in- 
justice. From talks with many Porto Kicans I am 
led to the conclusion that it was injustice rather 
than oppression which galled. Yet I could but smile 
when talking with one of the most intelligent Porto 
Eicans of my acquaintance. I was seeking definite 
charges. " Our courts are corrupt, and our judges 
are corruptible. Their favorable decision can be, 
and is, a matter of purchase," he said. I could only 
remark that this was unfortunate, but neither unique 
nor original with Porto Eico. " A part of the taxes 
which we pay only goes to enrich those who impose 



212 THE PORTO RICO OF TO-DAY 

the tax," he continued. I murmured something 
about haying heard rumors of similar proceedings in 
my own country. "We have no real voice in our 
own government. We may have a nominal voice, 
but we really have no actual voice," was his third 
charge. I fancy that a somewhat dreamy look 
crossed my face as I replied that it was quite open 
to question whether the average American citizen 
has as much of a voice in his government as he thinks 
he has. But the fact stands that the people of 
Porto Rico and the world at large believe that Porto 
Rico has been misgoverned, and that her governors 
have enriched themselves at her expense. 

I endeavored to obtain a list of the taxes imposed, 
but was unable to do so, for the reason that so many 
of them were special taxes and of what may be called 
local application. The severity of these taxes has 
restricted trade and commerce, and has, in some 
cases, impoverished taxpayers through making a 
continuance of their operations impossible. I am 
told that, aside from the tariff on merchandise, 
through the custom-house, there was no system of 
general taxation applied throughout the island by 
the insular government. It is possible that the state* 
ment may be true. But it is wholly certain that 
there was collusion and co-operation for mutual ben- 
efit between the appointees who imposed the many 



UlifDER THE OLD REGIME 213 

and diversified local taxes, and the officials of the 
central government who appointed them. Yet it 
might be quite as difficult to obtain absolute proof of 
this, as it would be to account for appropriations 
made by some state and city governments at home. 
The evidence is inferential rather than direct. It 
stands as follows : Vast sums have been collected by 
taxation ; no one can see what has been done with 
more than a fraction of the collections ; officials who 
came out from Spain either poor or having but little 
have returned within a brief time possessed of ample 
means ; from three to five years seems to be enough 
to turn a Lazarus into a Dives, provided Lazarus has 
a " pull " in Madrid that will send him to Porto Eico 
in an official capacity. 

One of the most burdensome and objectionable 
taxes imposed was that which was known as the 
"consumer's tax." It was of local application, and 
varied somewhat in different localities. It was im- 
posed upon all articles of consumption brought into 
the city or town for sale. It amounted to a local 
tariff upon everything which the merchant offered for 
sale in his store, or which was offered by the little 
market-gardener from the suburbs, who brought in a 
basket of eggs or vegetables. Naturally, it very great- 
ly increased the cost of living, while it also tended to 
a limitation of opportunity for the small farmer. 



214 THE PORTO RICO OF TO-DAY 

Another tax was that known as the " domiciliary 
certificate " {cedula de vecindad). It appeared to be 
a kind of graduated poll-tax, which had nothing to do 
with the right to vote. It was a certificate of resi- 
dence and occupation in any given community, and 
its possession and presentation seem to have been 
imperative in everything from a horse trade to ad- 
mission as a pupil in a medical college. Its terms 
were as follows : 

Pesos per year. 

Certificate of the first class ^ 25.00 

Certificate of the second class 12. 50 

Certificate of the third class 6. 00 

Certificate of the fourth class 5. 00 

Certificate of the fifth class 2.00 

Certificate of the sixth class 1.00 

Certificate of the seventh class 25 

Certificate of the eighth class 10 

In the first class were included those whose in- 
come amounted to 20,000 pesos per annum, or over. 
The others were as follows, the figures indicating the 
income : 



Second class 6,250 to 19,999 

Third class 3,250 to 6,249 

Fourth class 2,000 to 3,249 

Fifth class. 750 to 1,999 

Sixth class 375 to 749 

Seventh class Less than 375 



UNDER THE OLD REGIME 215 

The eighth class applied to laborers whose work 
was irregular and whose little income was variable, 
to men out of employment, etc. I do not understand 
that the tax was compulsory, but it was represented 
to me as essential to all men in all walks of life. Be- 
yond these there were special taxes for special pur- 
poses, for the war in Cuba, for a hospital for the 
sick, for roads, railroads, telegraphs, for definite pur- 
poses on the island, and for definite purposes on the 
peninsula. There were fees to be paid for legal 
documents, civil and criminal, which were invalid un- 
less they bore the official stamp. 

All contracts, wills, and documents made before a 
notary were required to be written on specially 
stamped paper, costing from fifteen cents to twenty 
dollars a sheet, according to the position of the 
maker of the instrument among the twelve different 
classes. Stamped paper for cases before civil and 
criminal courts cost from three cents to twenty-five 
dollars a sheet. Additional sheets, for papers of 
unusual length, could be had at twenty-five cents the 
sheet. 

But while the long and involved list of taxes 
stands as a fact, there are ample evidences that all 
the people of Porto Eico have not been taxed to 
death. There are thousands of comfortable homes, 
thousands of men of apparently comfortable incomes. 



216 THE PORTO RICO OF TO-DAY 

Nor are tliese all Spaniards, protected and favored 
by the officials. There are many well-to-do Porto 
Ricans. The mass of the people is like the mass 
elsewhere, in Italy, in Mexico, in China. They are 
poor, and they are accustomed to poverty. Life is a 
simple matter in the sunny island, and they are no 
more discontented than the millions elsewhere. 

I quite failed to see wherein the Porto Eican had 
so much more cause for grumbling than has the av- 
erage of humanity elsewhere. Beggars were numer- 
ous, but there were no signs of suffering poverty. 
The beggars were largely of the " lame, the halt, and 
the blind," incapacitated for manual labor. 

But these conditions are by no means peculiar to 
Porto Eico, and there are many places where abject 
poverty is more apparent, and complaint less vigor- 
ous. Complaint of something is universal. We of 
the United States do our full share of it. We com- 
plain of our taxes, our laws, and our administration. 
The protectionist and the free-trader alike complain 
of the tariff. The workingman complains of the 
greed of the capitalist, and the capitalist complains 
of the unreasonable demands of the workingman. 
The Porto Eicans have made the most that they 
could out of the fact that they have been subjects 
ruled by an outside power, and have been given 
little or no voice in the regulation of their own af- 



UNDER THE OLD REGIME 217 

fairs. Of this and of one other thing they complain 
more bitterly than they do about their taxes. They 
charge the government with marked partiality toward 
Spanish residents. Taxation was unequal, and when 
opposed to the Spaniard before the courts the Porto 
Eicans found no justice. These constitute the com- 
plaints of the more intelligent, as I have met them. 
They are the demand of men for fair-play, self-gov- 
ernment, and individuality. 

According to statements made to me by one of the 
leading men of the Autonomist party in Porto Eico, 
that party is far better satisfied to have the island 
come under American control than it would have 
been with any form of autonomy or independence. 
Autonomy was regarded as greatly preferable to 
Spanish rule and robbery, when there was no thought 
or hope for American occupation. The argument 
used is that, as a part of the United States, the isl- 
and will share the progress, the development, and 
the freedom of that country, whose moral and phys- 
ical support it will now have in all its relations 
with other countries. As an independent govern- 
ment it would become as Venezuela, Hayti, San Do- 
mingo, et al.f torn with domestic dissension and 
frequent political revolutions. 

The prevailing belief is that Porto Eico will be 
developed, and that Porto Eicans will be enriched, 



218 THE PORTO EICO OF TO-DAY 

by the advent of American people and American 
capital. The people have heard of American wealth 
and energy, of our development and enrichment of all 
that we touch, and they look for personal advantages 
to arise from our control of their island. They are 
not a naturally energetic people. The tropical sun 
acts, as usual, as a negative force in the matter of 
active industry. But they appear to recognize cer- 
tain possibilities of which their island is capable, and 
to have, at least, a theoretical idea of their develop- 
ment. In spite of all talk of Spanish robbery and 
oppression, of heavy taxes and financial imposition, 
there are wealthy men on the island of Porto Eico. 
The majority are poor, as the majority are almost 
universally. There is no doubt that there is little 
opportunity for the poor man. He can make what 
passes for a living — that is, he can live and his fam- 
ily can live. But land is dear, and the island ap- 
pears to be a place for capital to develop in ways 
that will enrich the investor and give to its employ- 
ees a better opportunity for a better living. 



XYI 

ADIOS! ESPANA 

A Brief but Impressive Ceremony — The De Profundis of Spanish 
Rule — Amicable Relations — Admiral Sampson's System of Ven- 
tilation for Public Buildings — The Fortifications of San Juan — 
The Soldiers of the Boy King— Their Repatriation— The Law of 
Karma. 

The Governor's Palace in San Juan stands across 
the western end of Fortaleza Street. It is a largo 
and somewhat imposing structure, though of no im- 
pressive style of architecture. In the shade of an 
angle formed by the junction of a wing with the main 
building, there stood, a little before twelve o'clock at 
noon, on October 18th, some two score officers of the 
American army and navy. They were all in so much 
of dress uniform as their campaign outfit permitted, 
and wore their side arms. With them were six or 
eight civilians, some in dress and some in frock coats. 
These were foreign consuls, and members of the in- 
sular government of the island of Porto Eico. 

Immediately in front of this group, and facing the 

arched portal of the Palace, stood the regimental 

219 



220 THE POKTO EICO OF TO-DAY 

band of the Eleventh United States Infantry. Be- 
hind the band, filling the street from curb to curb, 
stood two battalions of the Eleventh. Their uni- 
form consisted of campaign hats, blue flannel shirts, 
trousers of the kind furnished to the troops for the 
campaign in the tropics, and the brown regulation 
leggings. They presented no brilliant spectacle, 
those tall, sunburned soldier-men, but the Span- 
iards in the western part of the island ran away 
from them a few weeks before. Behind the infantry, 
Troop H of the Sixth United States Cavalry sat on 
their big bay horses, with drawn sabres. They pre- 
sented no more gorgeous appearance than did their 
fellows who stood in front of them, but the Sixth 
Cavalry, or any part of it, is the Sixth. 

On the balcony of the first story of the Palace 
stood a little group of ladies and gentlemen. Among 
them was Mrs. Gordon, whose husband stood with 
his associates. Admiral Schley, and General Brooke, 
of the United States Commission, among the group 
of officials. Outside the military lines and up the 
adjacent streets, on roofs and balconies, and at the 
windows of the Palace and other buildings of the 
vicinity, were soldiers and civilians, ladies and chil- 
dren. 

Just before the stroke of noon all movement ceases, 
all voices are still. The heads of all officials are 



ADIOS ! ESPAN^A 221 

bared, as are tlie heads of all spectators who are 
blessed with any sense of the fitness of things. 
There is an instant of impressive silence. To all 
save the shallow and the thoughtless the moment is 
one of deep solemnity. Many eyes are wet, and 
many a lip quivers with intensity of feeling. Into 
the grave of the past there fall four centuries of his- 
tory of Spanish power in sea-girt Porto Eico. It 
is the end of a long life, mis-spent if you will, but 
venerable in its antiquity if in nothing else. Then 
upon the hushed air there sounds the musical note 
of a distant bell slowly striking the hour. Upon its 
third stroke a second bell chimes in, and then a 
third. While they are still sounding, there comes 
the roar of the signal-gun, fired by Major Day of 
the Fifth United States Artillery, from the walls of 
the old Morro. Before the sound of the gun has 
died away, the band strikes up the sweet strains of 
our national anthem, as the Stars and Stripes are 
slowly hauled to the masthead on the top of the 
Palace by Major Dean and Lieutenant Castle of 
General Brooke's personal staff. With the dying 
notes of " The Star-Spangled Banner " the specta- 
tors give three hearty cheers, the inevitable, en- 
thusiast howls " tiger-r-r-r," and the ceremony is 
over. The troops march away to their barracks; 
carriages drive up to take the officials to their homes 



222 THE POETO KICO OF TO-DAY 

or to the hotels, and the little crowd of spectators 
melts away in different directions. 

It was all a quiet affair. There was no excite- 
ment, and but little enthusiasm. An hour after its 
close the streets had assumed their wonted appear- 
ance. There was little to show that anything im- 
portant had taken place, that by this brief ceremony 
Spain's power on the island of Porto Kico had ended 
forever. There was little to indicate a change, ex- 
cept that over the grim walls of the Morro, over the 
frowning heights of San Cristobal, and over all the 
public buildings of the city, there shone the bright 
colors of the red, white, and blue, instead of the red 
and yellow of Spain. 

There was a deal of handshaking among the two or 
three hundred American civilians gathered in the city. 
A cork or two popped, and a few less effervescent 
and more economical throat-moisteners went down 

to an accompaniment of, "Well! Here's to '* 

whatever it might be. Blue flannel shirts and cam- 
paign hats took the place of linen blouses and white 
helmets on the streets, as the Krag-Jorgensen was 
substituted for the Mauser and the old-pattern 
Remington. Here and there a native showed the 
new national colors, and a few householders and 
merchants displayed the American flag. But the 
event had been anticipated. Flag-raising in Porto 



ADIOS! ESPA^A 223 

Kico had got to be an old story. The citizens of 
San Juan had abeady become quite familiar with the 
appearance of American soldiers and civilians on 
their streets, and the proportion of ardent supporters 
of the new government was not of sufficient strength 
to lead to any very effusive demonstrations on the 
part of citizens. 

Under the circumstances, all was best as it was. It 
was far better than any great parade of armed troops. 
It was better that there were no long speeches and 
ceremonial forms. We have hardly laid a big enough 
egg to warrant our doing any great amount of cack- 
ling. All was done that was necessary. The national 
salute of twenty -one guns was fired from the differ- 
ent forts, and the American ships in the harbor were 
dressed from stem to topmast, and from topmast to 
stern, with all their bunting. The revenue-cutter 
Manning was the only government vessel there, ex- 
cept two or three transports. She echoed the cannon 
from the forts with the proper twenty-one shots from 
her guns. 

None of the Spanish Commission was present at 
the ceremonies at the palace. Some had gone to 
Spain, and the one who was still there did not attend. 
By a special invitation extended by the United States 
Commission, all the chiefs of the insular government 
were among the guests of the occasion, as were also 



224 THE POETO EICO OF TO-DAY 

the different foreign consuls. The people of the city 
were happily disappointed in their apprehensions of 
disturbance on the part of the anti-Spanish element, 
and the order which garrisoned the city with the 
Eleventh Eegulars eliminated much of the danger of 
rowdyism on the part of our soldiers. 

The war in Porto Kico is over. It ends with much 
of hopeful outlook for the future. Much will de- 
pend on the judgment, the tact, and the breadth of 
view of our officials. There are a few small clouds 
in the morning sky, but they will be easily dissi- 
pated, and the coming years should be a time of sure 
and steady growth and development for this spot for 
which a beneficent Creator has done so much. 

The days which preceded this simple but impres- 
sive ceremony presented a peculiarly interesting 
study for the observer of unusual situations. It 
was the twilight of Spanish domination in the island. 
One might easily grow sentimental over it, for, cruel 
and unjust as may have been the Spanish rule on the 
island, there was a pathos in its downfall. It was 
the end of an old life and the beginning of a new. 

A different condition was presented in the old city 
of San Juan from that which obtained in Ponce, 
in Mayaguez, and elsewhere. In those places the 
American occupation was an affair of some abrupt- 
ness. It had not been immediately anticipated by 



ADIOS! ESPANA 225 

the people, and the appearance of a large body of 
fighting men was followed by the hasty and precipi- 
tate departure of the Spanish garrisons. There was 
another point of essential difference. In the terri- 
tory first occupied by the Americans the native 
Porto Eican element, with its strongly indicated dis- 
position to welcome the change in its rulers, was 
very greatly in excess of the Spanish population and 
that class which is counted as of Spanish sympathies. 
In San Juan the condition was reversed. The Span- 
ish element there outnumbers the Porto Kican by 
about three to one. 

From such a situation it might reasonably be in- 
ferred that, prior to the arrival of the American 
army, there would be some such manifestations as 
those which appeared in some of our Southern cities 
just before the outbreak of the Civil War, in Paris 
upon the declaration of war with Germany, and else- 
where under similar conditions. But I saw nothing 
of the sort. Here and there one got an ungracious 
look; here and there a merchant was neither very 
alert nor very courteous in attending to the wants of 
an American customer. But of an open, overt act of 
any kind which could reasonably be construed into 
an intended insult, or which clearly displayed any 
bitter animosity, I saw no sign, nor did I hear of 
any. There in what it would hardly be an exagger- 



226 THE PORTO EICO OF TO-DAY 

ation to class as a Spanisli hot-bed, dominated by 
Spaniards and Spanish sympathizers, and filled with 
the - soldiers of the .Spanish army, there was a little 
handful of Americans. Encamped some fifteen miles 
or so outside of the city, to the southeast, was the 
troop of United States cavalry which served as an 
escort to Major-General Brooke, United States com- 
missioner and general in command of all the Ameri- 
can forces on the island. A score or more of Ameri- 
can civilians, journalists, and merchants investigating 
commercial questions, were quartered in the two 
leading hotels. Or, rather, they were quartered in 
the leading hotel, the Inglaterra, and another, the 
Francia, which bears to the Inglaterra about the 
same relation that the old Metropolitan Hotel in 
New York would bear, were it still standing, to the 
"Waldorf-Astoria. 

The rest of the American contingent was repre- 
sented by the commission and its staff. It was only 
a small group among so many who could hardly be 
expected to regard the people of America with the 
most kindly of feelings. But until all possible dan- 
ger had passed, down there in the harbor, within a 
few hundred yards of any part of the little island 
upon which stands the city proper of San Juan, there 
lay a little bunch of graceful, but grim-looking, slate- 
colored vessels showing the bright folds of the 



ADios ! espaS^a 227 

American flag. The fact that these could have mate- 
rially altered the architectural lines of the city in the 
course of a short hour or two, may have had some 
influence as a restraining element. But it is more 
probable that the absence of any aggressive or pro- 
testing demonstration arose from a general accept- 
ance of the situation, and a realization of the useless- 
ness of any disturbance. 

All was quiet and peaceful. But wait — I am in er- 
ror. San Juan can never be regarded as " quiet " so 
long as it tolerates the cries of street venders who, in 
the continuity of their howling and its harshness, 
turn the strains of the New York representative of the 
same fraternity into the occasional warblings of angel 
bands. But peaceful it certainly was in San Juan. 
There was but little business being done. There 
was none of that long procession of bullock-teams 
and army- wagons, none of that hurrying of carriages 
to and fro, which was a noticeable feature of the city 
of Ponce. The only busy places in San Juan were 
the cafes. The Mallorquina is the best and most 
fashionable of these, and during a part of the day, 
and a considerable part of the night, it and its rivals 
were thronged by a somewhat curious mixture of 
Spanish and American uniforms, military and naval, 
with Spanish and Porto Eican and American civil- 
ians all hobnobbing sociably together, elbow to 



228 THE PORTO EICO OF TO-DAY 

elbow, over ices and glasses of mild and cooling 
drinks. There was little drunkenness, and such as 
there was, I regret to say, was American. 

Conflicting reports have gone out with reference 
to the extent of the damage done to the city by Ad- 
miral Sampson during his brief use of the place as a 
target for his guns. It is a fact that the city gen- 
erally shows but little sign of having been used as 
an object for target-practice. Here and there some 
of the taller buildings show scratches and minor 
gaps made in their superstructure by low-flying 
shells which were intended to pass over the city, and 
drop upon any possible Spanish squadron which 
might be hidden in the inner bay. But in the walls 
of some of the military buildings immediately upon 
the northern shore, and in the walls of some of the 
structures in their vicinity, one sees a number of 
holes, which are evidently the result of a definite 
purpose to make holes in them. It may be that 
little damage was done. I can only say that I have 
no wish to have any buildings which may come into 
my possession at any time ventilated by the system 
employed by Admiral Sampson upon some of theso 
Spanish barracks and fortifications. 

There is little question that the dehberate and 
sustained bombardment of San Juan by an Amer- 
ican squadron, having the demolition of the city as 



ADios ! espaRa 229 

its intent and purpose, would have very speedily 
reduced the major portion of it to dust and ashes. 
That it was not done is due solely to the fact that 
it was never attempted. Enough was done to neces- 
sitate the use of a considerable quantity of bricks 
and mortar in repairing damages, and, at the time 
of the Sampson episode, to drive the majority of the 
people of the city, many of them clad only in the 
scantiest of habiliments, and some of them robed 
only in sheets, in the dim light of the early morn- 
ing, to seek refuge and shelter in the mountains of 
Bayamon. 

But now that the disturbance is all over, and wo 
have had opportunity for competent official exami- 
nation of the fortifications of the city, it will be no 
more than common honesty for us to acknowledge 
that we must have pounded away at those massive 
walls for an indefinite time before we could have 
compelled them to haul down their flag. This fact 
makes for our own advantage if it ever becomes 
necessary for us to defend our new possession. 
Equipped with modern guns aimed by American 
gunners, the forts of San Juan could be made ex- 
tremely offensive and dangerous to an attacking fleet. 
It is even quite probable that in a sustained bom- 
bardment the American fleet would not have come 
off scathless from the Spanish defence. A few well- 



230 THE PORTO RICO OF TO-DAY 

aimed shots, or even a few chance shots, from Morro, 
from San Cristobal, or from the eastward extending 
fortification, might easily have cost us a vessel or two 
and a few hundred lives. Had San Juan been de- 
fended, as it might readily have been, against attack 
by land or sea, the story of the Porto Eican cam- 
paign would have been one of tragedy rather than 
semi-comedy. 

We had little opportunity to note the fighting 
quality of the Spanish soldiers in Porto Kico. We 
had no real battles with them. But in one depart- 
ment of their military life, these men commanded 
the respect of all who observed their conduct. Dur- 
ing the three weeks preceding their embarkation for 
the Peninsula, I saw upward of 5,000 Spanish sol- 
diers. The streets of the city of San Juan were full 
of them at all hours of the day. Within that time 
they received, not only the arrears of their pay, but 
two months' pay in advance as well. They had 
money and there is an ample supply of cafes and 
saloons in the city. I have yet to see an intoxicated 
Spanish soldier. A friend tells me that he saw two 
whom he describes as being "just gentlemanly drunk." 
Quiet, orderly, respectful in demeanor, though not re- 
markably soldierly in their bearing, the troops of the 
boy king have received the highest praise for their 
conduct from all with whom I have discussed them. 




i 

I 




t 



^ 



St. John's Church, San Juan, showing the Effects of the Bombardment. 



AMOS ! ESPANA 231 

Among the soldiers wlio turned their faces to the 
land of their homes and of their own people, were 
those who cast many a backward look and who felt 
and expressed their keen regret that they must go. 
Some regretted the conditions under which they 
went, for, gloss it as they might with talk of the 
preservation of honor, they went defeated, and they 
went not because they would, but because they 
must. Some will return. There are those who, 
charmed by all that nature has done to make the 
island so rich and so attractive, announced their pur- 
pose to come back and make their homes there, even 
though it meant the spending of their lives under the 
flag of those who had been their opponents, and ap- 
parently their enemies. They had established ties of 
friendship during their stay. Not a few were bound 
by even closer ties. Some had married women of 
the island, and their children are Porto Eicans. 
Some were glad to go. Many seemed to be wholly 
indifferent. Orders sent them there, and orders sent 
them back again. It was not their affair, and the 
future government of Porto Rico, whether it be Span- 
iard or by Yankee, was nothing to them. 

I had fancied that the process of embarkation 
would be attended by many evidences of emotion, of 
joy or sorrow, of pleasure or regret. There was little 
display of feeling. The transports which were to 



232 THE POETO EICO OF TO-DAY 

take those wlio were to go by tlae expedition of 
October 3d and 4t]i, lay at anchor a hundred yards 
or so from the sea-wall. In squads and in companies 
the troops marched to the water-front and waited 
their turn to be packed on the lighters upon which 
they were ferried across to the ships. Here and there 
a hat was waved and a voice called a farewell mes- 
sage. There was little enthusiasm of any kind, little 
show of interest. The quiet was not the subdued 
quiet of sadness, but rather that of general indiffer- 
ence. There were spectators, but no crowd. 

The Isla de Panay and the Satrustegui, the ships 
provided for this detachment, were fine, large vessels 
from Barcelona. The Panay is said to have taken 
1,600 soldiers and some civilians, while the Satrus- 
tegui is reported as having carried 2,300. Whether 
these figures be accurate or not, there is no question 
that they were packed about as solidly as a box of 
figs. As the vessels lay in the harbor, their decks 
presented a dense mass of human forms moving 
about in a slow but restless entanglement, with a 
bordering fringe of other figures which hung along 
and over the rail upon both sides of the ships. 
Man}^ of the transports which have taken our own 
troops to ports in the Antilles have been thought to 
be well packed with passengers, and there has been 
some complaint because of it. Some of the dissatis- 



ADios ! espaS-a 233 

fied miglit have learned a lesson or two in troop 
transportation liad they been assigned a passage on 
board tliese Spanish vessels. It would have been of 
more interest than pleasure to make the trip with 
these returning troops, for the purpose of noting 
the accommodations, and the quantity and quality of 
the food supplied to them. I have my doubts about 
a menu which included the canned beef and the 
salmon, the beans and tomatoes, which some of those 
who went out there on the Mohawk, the D. H. Miller, 
and the Massachusetts found so unpalatable. 

The evacuation of the city of San Juan, the Spanish 
stronghold upon the island, the focal point of Span- 
ish people and Spanish influence, was the closing of 
the gate of an old homestead which has seen gener- 
ation after generation come and go for four hundred 
years. The mortgage upon the broad and fertile 
acres has been foreclosed by the operation of that 
inexorable law which says : " That which a man sow- 
eth, that shall he also reap." The property passes 
into the hands of others who, it is much to be hoped, 
will deal wisely and honestly with it 



INDEX 



Ad JUNTAS, 65, 68, 79, 80, 199; the 
population, 67 ; the approach to, 
69-71 ; location, 72; the city hall, 
73 ; the police force, 74 ; the 
parish priest, 74-76; the sale of 
liquor, 76 ; natural surroundings, 
77 

Agricultural implements, 169 

Agricultural products : 
CoflFee, 72, 95, 106, 124, 132-133, 

151, 153-155, 170 
Corn, 94-95, 160, 171 
Sugar, 106, 117, 131, 142, 151-153, 

156, 170 
Tobacco. 44, 151, 156-158. 170. 

See Cigars 
Vegetables and fruits, 64, 159- 
160, 170. See Fruits 

Aguada, 136, 190, 203 

AguadiUa, 104, 122, 136, 203, 204 

Aibonito, 114-115, 200, 206, 207 

Anasco, 136, 203 

Arecibo, 68, 79, 123, 136, 199, 
200 

Arroyo, 117, 200 

Bat rum, 171 

Bayamon, 136, 229 

Beans, 184 

Beef, amount of, imported, 170 

Books, 187 

Boots and shoes, the trade in, 170, 

174, 175 
Boriquen, 26, 27, 29, 104 



Brooke, General, 6, 10, 199, 208, 

220, 221, 226 
Butter, 170 

Cables, 148-149 

Caguas, 118, 144 

Camuy, 136 

Candles, 170 

Carolina, 136 

Casino, the, at Mayaguez, 105 

Cattle-raising, 160, 171 

Cayey, 115, 116, 144, 207 

Cheese, 170 

Chinaware, 170 

Church architecture, 117 

Cigars, 44, 77, 156-158 

Clothing, 175 

Coal, 170 

Coamo, 110, 113, 208 ; the baths of, 

in 

Cocoa-nuts, 63, 131, 158 

Coffee, the crops and the industry, 
72, 95, 151; amount exported, 106, 
170 ; annual output of the island, 
124, 153 ; expenses of transporta- 
tion, 124 ; possibilities of the in- 
dustry, 132-133, 155; the chief 
district, 154 ; coffee raising profit- 
able, 154-155, but labor and time 
involved, 155-156 

Commerce, effect of tariff rates on 

the problem of, 165 ; prospects 

of, 166 et seq. ; business methods 

in Porto Rico, 172 et seq.; the 

235 



236 



INDEX 



commercial advantage of annex- 
ation, 176-1 79. See Industries. 

Cooking, 184 

Copper, 150 

Corn, 94-95, 160, 171 

Coto Laurel, 109 

Cotton goods, 169 

Cristobal. See San Cristobal 

Cuba, 4, 21 ; tobacco exported to, 
157 



Gold, 150 

Grape fruit, 1 58 

Guanica, 25, 63, 66, 125, 201 ; situ- 
ation of, 63, 67 

Guano, 171 

Guayama, 200; the road to, 116; 
the church, 117 ; a transporta- 
tion centre, 122 ; General Brooke 
at, 208 

GuayanUla, 136, 140 



Daiquiri, 24 

Dress, the, of Porto Ricans, 39, 

175 
Dry-goods, 173. See Shops. 

Ernst, General, 6, 10, 113, 114 
Exports : 

Cattle, 171 

Coffee, 72, 106, 153, 157, 179 

Corn, 171 

Fruits and vegetables, 158-159, 
171 

Guano, 171 

Hides, 171 

Lumber, 171 

Molasses, 170 

Rum, 171 

Sugar, 106, 151-153, 179 

Tobacco, 156-158, 170 

See also Commerce, Industries 



Fish, 169 

Flour, 44, 169, 177 

Fran(jais, Hotel, 48, 50, 166 

Fruits, 64, 131 ; obstacles to the 
export fruit-trade, 158 ; amount 
exported, 171. See Cocoa-nuts, 
Mangoes, Oranges 



Hats, 174-175 

Henry, General, 66, 68, 79, 80 ; the 
expedition of, 199-201, 208 

Hides, 171 

Highways, 122 et seq. ; the road 
from Ponce to San Juan, 108- 
121 ; repairs, 119 ; new roads 
needed, 120-121 ; military roads, 
123 ; roads required to assist in 
American development of the 
island, 124-125, 178 ; driving 
through mud, 126-128; Porto 
Ricans bad drivers, 129-130 ; ad- 
verse conditions in the soil, 131- 
132 ; mountain highways, 132 ; 
a suggested method of developing 
Porto Rico, 133-134 ; effect of a 
new highway system on sugar- 
raising, 153 

Hormigueros, 93, 98, 136 ; Captain 
Hoyt at, 99 ; the church of Our 
Lady of Monserrate, 100 ; the 
battle at, 202-203 

Hotels, 180-181 

Houses, 70, 73, 101, 102 ; furnish- 
ings of, 176 ; bed-chambers, 181- 
182 ; hospitality versus furni- 
ture, 195-196 

Humacao, 122 



Galena, 150 
Glassware. 170 



Ice, 44 
Illiteracy, 187-190 



INDEX 



237 



Imports, 1G6 ; annual value of va- 
rious imports estimated, 168-170 
Industries : 
Cattle-raising, 160, 171 
CofFee-growing, 72, 95, 124, 132- 

133, 151, 153-156 
Fruit-raising, 131, 158-159 
Lumbering, 151 
Mechanical industries; 160 
Mining, 150-151 

Sugar-raising, 131 ; in Guayama, 
117 ; handicapped by cost of 
transportation, 142; possibili- 
ties of, 151-153 ; small planta- 
tions, 156 
, Tobacco-growing, 151, 156-158 
Vegetable-gardening, 64, 159- 

160, 170 
See Agricultural Products, Man- 
ufactures, and Commerce 
Iron, 150 
Isla de Panay, 232 

Johnston, Captain, the expedi- 
tion of, 80 et seq. 
Juana Diaz, 110 



Hats, 174, 175 

Ice, 44 

Molasses, 151, 170 

Rum, 77, 119-120, 151, 171 

Marketing, Sunday, 63-65 

Mayaguez, 56, 93, 122, 136, 137, 
144, 174, 175, 202, 205, 224; 
houses, 101 ; streets and street 
cars, 102-103; the Columbus 
monument, 104 ; the Casino, 105 ; 
the harbor, 106 ; exports, 106 ; 
its attractiveness, 107; from 
Yauco to Mayaguez, 125 et seq. ; 
the Mayaguez expedition of Gen- 
eral Schwan, 201-208 ; Mayaguez 
occupied by American soldiers, 
203 

Mechanical industries, 160 

Miles, General, 7, 10, 25, 29, 112 

Miller, the D. H., 9, 31, 233; voy- 
age of the, 11-25 

Millon, Padre Antonio, 74 

Mining, 150-151 

Mohawk, the, 13, 233 

Molasses, 151, 170 

Morro, the, 191, 231, 222, 230 



La Plata. See Playa, La 
Labor, inefficiency of, 146 ; little 

encouragement in the situation, 

171-172 
Land, the cost of, 145, 160 
Lares, 80, 144, 203, 204 
Las Marias, 203, 204 
Lee, General Fitzhugh, 1, 2, 5 
Leon, Ponce de, 191 
Liquors, sale of, 77 ; amount of, 

imported, 170. See Rum 
Lumber, 146, 151, 170, 171 

Mangoes, 39, 40, 41, 64, 158 
Manufactures : 
Cigars, 44, 77, 156-158 



Negroes, 194-195 

Oranges, 64, 158-159 

Paper, 177 

Pedlers, 40, 163 

Peso, value of the, 190 

Pine-apples, 64, 158 

Pines, the Isle of, 21 

Plantain, 184 

Playa, La, 34, 35, 52; activity in, 

4«-50 
Ploughing, 183 
Ponce, 25, 32, 65, 76, 78, 79, 93, 107, 

122, 125, 199, 200, 201, 224, 227; 

natural surroundings, 30-31 ; the 



238 



INDEX 



port city of La Playa, 34, 35 ; the 
city proper, 36 ; the park, and the 
cathedral, 37 ; activity along the 
Ponce road, 38 ; the people, 39, 
40; shops, 43-44, 57-58, 174-175; 
the crowd at La Playa, 48-49 ; 
the Hotel Fran<;ais, 50; Ponce 
from the stranger's point of view, 
53 ; the theatre of La Perla, the 
casino, and the promenade on the 
plaza, 53 ; the police department, 
54 ; the fire department, 55 ; the 
market, 56 ; the road to San Juan, 
108 ; the Ponce and Yauco rail- 
road, 136 ; the railway station at 
Ponce, 137; by rail to Yauco, 
139 et seq. ; the cost of a drive to 
San Juan, 143 

Ponce, the San Juan road from, 
the great excellence of, 108-109 ; 
Juana Diaz and Coamo, 110-111; 
exposed as a military road, 113; 
scenery, 113 ; Aibonito and 
Cayey, 114-115 ; trees, 116 ; Gua- 
yama, and sugar-raising, 117, 
Rio Piedras, 118; repairing the 
road, 119 ; the need of new high- 
ways, 130-121 ; cost of travel 
over, 143 

Ponies, 34, 41-43, 71, 103, 135-136; 
better horses needed in Porto 
Rico, 130 

Pork, 160, 169 

Porto Rico, 1, 8, 3, et passim ; the 
departure of the Porto Rican ex- 
pedition, 1-10 ; the Carib name 
of the island, 36-37 ; the Spanish 
name, 38-39 ; first impressions of 
the island, 30 et seq.; area, 133, 
167, 311 ; number of miles of 
highway, 133 ; character of the 
soil, 131-133 ; relative area of the 
mountain district, 133 ; railroads, 



135 et seq. ; belt and cross country 
lines, 144 et seq.; industrial pos- 
sibilities, 150 et seq.; an " Ameri- 
can Bermuda," 159; commerce, 
163 et seq.; density of the popu- 
lation, 167 ; advantages of an- 
nexation to the United States, 
176-179, 317-318; the peasant 
population, 183; climate, 184- 
187; illiteracy, 187-190; propor- 
tion of the white to the dark 
population, 194-195 ; Porto Rican 
hospitality, 195-196; ideas of 
Spanish oppression exaggerated, 
309 et seq.; good government, 
310; freedom from debt, 311; 
taxation, 212 et seq.; poverty and 
wealth, 315, 316 ; the sacrifice of 
Spanish power, 319 et seq. 

Railways, lack of, 133; number 
of miles operated, 135-136 ; 
routes, 136 ; the railway station 
at Ponce, 137 ; by rail from Ponce 
to Yauco, 139 et seq.; a railway 
system needed in Porto Rico, 
143, 153. 178 ; the belt line, 135, 
143, 144; a cross-country line 
desirable, 144; the expense of 
construction, 145 et seq.; owner- 
ship of the present system, 146- 
147 

Rice, 169, 184 

Rincon, 136 

Rio Piedras, 118, 136, 137 

Road houses, 119 

Roads. See Highways 

Rum, Porto Rican, 77, 119, 120, 
151, 171 

Sabana Grande, 93, 136 ; houses, 
94 ; corn and coffee, 95 ; popu- 
lation of, 303 



INDEX 



239 



Samana Bay, 34, 25 

San Cristobal, 191, 222, 230 

San German, 93 ; picturesqueness 
of, 95; "Hotel the Struggle," 
96-97 ; population, 202 

San Juan, 2, 28, 79, 107, 111, 113, 
122, 136, 143, 200, 233 ; the monu- 
ment to Columbus, 104 ; the road 
to Ponce, 108 ; the expense of a 
drive to Ponce, 143 ; antiquity of 
San Juan, 168 ; schools, 189-190 ; 
attractions of the city, 190-191 ; 
fortifications, 191, 229 ; ex- 
penses of the municipal govern- 
ment, 192 et seq. ; the ox-cart 
fire-engine, 192 ; the Governor's 
Palace, 219 ; an impressive cere- 
mony, 219 et seq.; the large 
Spanish element, 224-225 ; a 
quiet city, 227 ; the Mallor- 
quina, 227 ; the damage done by 
Admiral Sampson's fleet, 228 ; 
Spanish soldiers in San Juan, 
230 et seq. 

San Juan road, the, from Ponce, 
108 ; excellence of, as a bicycle 
path, 109 ; Juana Diaz and 
Coamo, 110-111 ; exposed as a 
military road, 112 ; scenery, 113 ; 
Aibonito and Cayey, 114-115; 
trees, 116 ; Guayama and sugar- 
raising, 117 ; Rio Piedras, 118 ; 
repairing the road, 119; new 
highways needed, 120-121 ; driv- 
ing from San Juan to Ponce, 143 

San Juan Bautista, 28, 29 

Santiago, 8, 9, 10, 25, 32 

Santiago expedition, the, 4, 7 

Satrustegui, the, 232 

Schools, 188-190 

Schwan, Brigadier - General, the 
campaign of, 199, 201-208 

*' Shacks," 94 



Shafter, General, 197, 208 

Shoes, 170, 174, 175 

Shops, 43 et seq.^ 57 et seq.^ 76, 94, 
173 et seq. 

Smoking, enjoyed by women, 77 

Spain, products of, in Porto Rico, 
43, 170, 174 ; sacrifice of the 
power of, in Porto Rico, 219 et 
seq. 

Spanish, the traveller's vocabulary 
of, 59-61 

Stone, General Roy, 68, 199 

Stieet-cars. 102-103 

Street-lights, 193 

Sugar raising, extent of, and 
amount of the product exported, 
106, 170 ; in the vicinity of Gua- 
yama, 117 ; the black soil both 
the bane and the blessing of the 
planter, 131 ; the lowlands the 
best sugar lands, 132; efi^ect of 
railway improvements on the in- 
dustry, 142, 153 ; possibilities of, 
151 et seq. ; amount of capital 
required, 152 ; small plantations, 
156 

Tallaboa, 136, 140 

Tariflf, 165, 172, 176, 177 

Taxes, 120-121, 212-215 

Telegraphs, the present system of, 
147 et seq. ; under American con- 
trol, 148 ; cable lines, 148-149 

Timber. See Lumber 

Tobacco, 151 ; possibilities of to- 
bacco raising, 156 et seq. ; Porto 
Rican cigars, 44, 77, 157-158, 
174 ; amount of, exported, 170 

Toro, Captain Miguel, 95 

Transportation, 120, 122; common 
modes of, 123 ; roads needed, 
124-125 ; railways needed to de- 
velop sugar-raising and other in- 



240 



INDEX 



dustries, 143, 153; transporta- 
tion by water, 143 ; the best way 
to travel, 180. See also High- 
ways, Railways 
Trees, 116 

Utuado, 75, 76, 79, 199 

Vegetable-gardening, 64, 159- 

160, 170 
Villas, 70. See also Houses 



Wilson, General, 199, 200, 207, 

208 
Woollen goods, 169 

Yauco, 93, 174, 201, 202; location, 
62 ; the plaza, 63 ; Sunday mar- 
keting, 63-65 ; the Guanicaroad, 
66 ; Hotel Victoria, 125 ; the road 
to Mayaguez, 126 ; the Ponce and 
Yauco railroad, 136 et seq. 



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BOOKS ON OUR NEW POSSESSIONS 



COMMERCIAL CUBA 

A Book for Business Men 
By WILLIAM J. CLARK 

With 8 maps, 7 plans of cities, and 40 fulUpage illustrations, 
and a Commercial Directory of Cuba. Large 8vo, $4.00 

1 1 A THOROUGHLY good and useful book. We should 
^«» not know where to find within another pair of 
covers so much and so carefully sifted information 
bearing on this subject. Mr. Clark's painstaking account 
of the railway and telegraph systems ; of highways and 
harbors ; of rivers and water supplies, and lighthouses ; 
of sugar and tobacco growing ; and his detailed descrip- 
tion of each province and of every city of any size, to- 
gether with a ' business directory ' for the whole island, 
make his book one of great value for reference as well as 
for practical guidance. In the present situation of Cuban 
affairs it should command a wide sale. Its accuracy is 
certainly of a high order." — New York Evening Post. 



YESTERDAYS IN 
THE PHILIPPINES 

By JOSEPH EARLE STEVENS 

With 32 fulUpage illustrations from photographs 
by the author. Seventh, thousand, izmo, $1.50 

««TY7ITH the observant and indulgent eye of an old 
W traveller, Mr. Stevens has seen everything in 
the islands worth seeing, and has described 
what he has seen in a most interesting manner. . . . All 
is set forth by the narrator in a breezy, chatty way that 
would be entertaining under any circumstances." 

— Philadelphia Evening Telegraph. 



CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, NEW YORK 



THE WAR ON SEA AND LAND 



THE CUBAN 
AND PORTO RICAN CAMPAIGNS 

By RICHARD HARDING DAVIS 

With 117 illustrations from photographs and with 
4 maps. Twentieth thousand. i2mo, $1.50 

<«|LJEVER has a war been reported as this has been, 
jLN and never has a history been written like this, 
by one who saw it all — while the blood was hot 
and the memory vivid." — New York World. 

««*TrHIS is much the most vivid and readable of all 
A the books on the war that have appeared so far, 
and it is full of life and color and incidents that 
show the sort of stuff of which our soldiers were made. 
The book is written with a keenness, a vivacity, a skill 
and a power to thrill and to leave an impression which 
mark a decided advance over anything that even Mr. 
Davis has written heretofore." — Boston Herald. 



OUR NAVY IN THE 
WAR WITH SPAIN 

By JOHN R. SPEARS 

Author of '■ The History of Our Navy " 

With 125 illustrations from photographs and 
with charts and diagrams. i2mo, $2.00 

<<"\^R. SPEARS has plainly put his best efforts into 
•iVl that mighty combat, the sea-Gettysburg of the 
war, the death-grapple of Cervera's ships and 
Sampson's. His story of the action of July 3d is superb. 
It is the most lucid and comprehensive description which 
has yet been laid before the American people, and it is 
made all the more valuable by the official chart of the 
ships' courses which accompanies it. As a whole, Mr. 
Spears's book is not only true to technical details, but it 
IS a spirited and admirable piece of literary workmanship. 
It is one of the few volumes out of the many hurriedly 
issued in the wake of the war which will endure the test 
of time and stand as a faithful, competent picture to 
future generations." — Boston Journal. 



CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, NEW YORK 




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